Concert Review: Mika Miko, the Strange Boys
BY IAN HRABE
Upon entering the Jackpot to the tune of KC psych-garage punkers Wrong Crowd laying into Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," I had a feeling that maybe, just maybe, this show was going to be fucking awesome. Though their cover was pitch perfect, sadly, the rest of their songs were a pretty forgettable blend of noisy guitars and screaming female vocals.
After Wrong Crowd, Boo and Boo Too played a set comprised exclusively of new stuff they've been road-testing over the past couple of months. The songs were shorter and contained fewer noisy, indulgent guitar-squall breakdowns, yet none of them really seemed to stick. As per usual, they pushed the volume to the Jackpot's decibel limit and drowned the vocals in reverb, but it all came off as the exact same thing they've been doing for the last two years. That is, with the exception of closing track "Ripper's Hell," which is a goddamned monster jam with an excellent melody that had me wondering why the rest of the new songs weren't that good. 
Ian Hrabe Boo and Boo Too
Secretly, Boo and Boo Too can write a mean pop song, and if they'd only embrace that and pump out more tunes like "Black Buggy" or the title track from their 2007 debut LP No Tempo, things might get a little more engaging.
Austin's Strange Boys were the highlight of the evening. It didn't hurt that they opened with their best song, "Woe is You and Me," the lead-off track from The Strange Boys and Girls Club. It wasn't until front man Ryan Sambol (decked out in a messianic sort of cult-robe) asked the audience whether they wanted to hear a Dead Moon cover or a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover that I was finally able to pinpoint exactly what their sound was.
The Strange Boys
These are kids, I bet, who got into rootsy classic rock at a young age. Then, their older brothers turned them onto the British Invasion. Finally, they got into lo-fi garage punk on their own.
"Woe is You and Me" sounds a lot like a cross between "Bad Moon Rising" (though they covered "Lodi") and Dead Moon's "Walking on My Grave," which they may or may not have covered (I couldn't understand a single word Sambol was singing all night). Overall, it was a show that demanded I give Strange Boys and Girls Club another listen.
LA's Mika Miko desperately want to be X or any other LA punk band circa early 1980-something (specifically, pre-Rollins Black Flag minus riffs and catchiness). This really gets in the way of attempts at originality. Not like it really matters, though, given that they can play short, fast, and loud punk jams as well as any other band. Still, every song sounded the same, which was surprising given the stylistic diversity of their latest LP, We Be Xuxa.
However, Xuxa song "I Got a Lot (New New New)" sounded great, and during "Turkey Sandwich" I literally saw cold cuts flying through the air (thrown by guitarist Michelle Suarez), into the audience, and then back onto the stage like thinly sliced deli meat beach balls.
Mika Miko
Watching frontwoman Jennifer Clavin dodge these meat slices was amusing, but it just made me want to leave the show and run across the street to Jimmy Johns. Alas, I stayed, and nothing changed.
Sure, they're energetic, but any band can go on stage and be energetic (and liking a band solely because of this factor is like, say, giving someone a job because they are "really enthusiastic," which doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be good at it). Doing it with style is the trick. Fellow Smell-scene compatriots No Age and Abe Vigoda understand that, but at the same time, they're injecting new ideas into classic LA punk.
Mika Miko, on the other hand, seems to be treading water.
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