I know you’re overcome with excitement over the upcoming print editions of Bull Tongue, Fuckin’ Record Reviews and Dynamite Hemorrhage, but if you’ll indulge me for a moment, there’s a new contender for the crown of Dean Of American Rock Critics (if deans wore crowns) and that contender’s name is Bridget Clerkin of The Times Of Trenton.
On Wednesday, Clerkin made an audacious debut on the national stage with the trenchant, biting, “Hamilton metal band Lit By Darkness to headline Halloween show”. Copyright considerations prevent me from cutting and pasting the entire thing, but after reading this scintillating excerpt, I am fully confident you won’t be able to resist reading it yourself. Over and over again. And then, perhaps, to your children someday. (link courtesy Jon Solomon)
Formed by Hamilton High School West students Kyle Karaffa on drums, Chris Baughman on vocals and Tyler Maynard and recent West graduate Mark Gibbs on guitar, the band wanted to initiate a creepy vibe from the get-go, which is why they picked a mysterious name.“It was one of those things where I was just laying in bed, trying to think of names, and I thought of this,” Maynard said. “It sounded creepy – like stinkface creepy.”
And, according to the boys, the creepy strategy paid off, helping the band secure the headlining gig on Halloween despite having only played one other show before. That show earlier this month – also at Championship – was filled with ups and downs, they said, including one of Maynard’s guitar strings snapping during the first song.
“It wasn’t the first time I had been on stage, but it was the first time I was with this band, playing original material,” said Maynard, who had previously been in a metal cover band. “I was confident in our ability.”
That self-assurance didn’t come as easily for some of the other band members, like Karaffa, who had never performed live before.
“I was definitely nervous before the show,” he said. “But after we got on stage, and the crowd was there, there was just so much energy. It was awesome.”