The Spits Live @ The Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA [03-07-26]

I’ve got a love/hate relationships with the Spits. I love them because they’re one of the best bands out there right now. Terribly underappreciated but making some of the most fun and accessible punk music of all time. I hate them because last time I saw them live at the Brighton Music Hall, the crowd got so rowdy behind me that, somehow, in all the insanity, some guy flailed his arms over my shoulder, grabbed my glasses, and knocked them down. I had to watch the majority of the show squinting from the sidelines, watching one of my favorite bands, hardly making out what was going on on-stage. Luckily, I found my glasses, scratched up, after the show. I kept wearing them, and for years after I could point at the obvious damage and say, “That happened at a Spits show.”

But time has moved on, I got new glasses, a newer Spits band has penetrated our consciousness (a la Die Spitz), and we are all now fools. But not enough to miss the return of the Spits in Boston at the basement of the Middle East.

The Spits have not released a new album since I last saw them, but they do have a new drummer. A lively young sport. How was this doing to translate to the barebones lo fi drumming of the Spits’ music? Was it going to work? Of course it would. Because this new guy rocked our socks off: he was tight, brought fills to songs that heretofore contained none (and it sounded great), and actually sped things up a bit. He brought a great energy and I’m gonna go ahead and say it, The Spits have never sounded better. The Spits set was not without errors: members losing their place and repeated false starts because our new star drummer was just too fast. What’s a youngster supposed to do? The crowd was feeding off the band’s energy and vice versa. It was a grand time had by all, and even though Daylight Savings Time robbed us of an hour that night, the Spits made up for that lost time by squeezing 28 songs into 45 minutes.

This iteration of live Spits was light-years ahead of my first experience. The band was better, the venue was more intimate, the setlist was better, and all my bodily possessions remained intact. There’s nothing but love left for this band.

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