Concert Review: Mister Heavenly at the Grog Shop

Mister Heavenly hit the with Mr. Dream in tow Nov. 15, bringing a flurry of styles of punk, doo wop (or Doom Wop, as Mister Heavenly would call it), surf and others that would be entirely too much for most single bands. Sometimes supergroups are a little awkward, but if I hadn’t known better I would have guessed that Mister Heavenly had been playing together for years.

The first “Mister” of the night was Mr. Dream. I wish I could say I dug these guys. I got what they were going for. The loud, raucous kind of punk rock that’s a little sloppy with slurred vocals (but with a hint of swagger) and heavy instrumentation. Well, they hit the heavy instrumentation. The bass and guitar sounded awesome, full and deep. But the “we don’t need to sing/yell/talk in key” attitude didn’t really work for them. There were a couple shining moments when the bass player actually sang rather than spoke/yelled. Well, there was one shining moment.

Mid-set, they claimed they grew up in Cleveland, down the street from the Grog Shop. They’re from Brooklyn. If that was an attempt to win over the crowd with some kind of hometown camaraderie, it failed miserably. They ended the set with their guitarist setting his guitar down to let feedback takeover, as he leaned cross-legged on his amp, chugging his beer, with a pose and attitude that screamed, “I’m here to look cool. Music comes second.” It’s a shame, because there were good ideas here and there.

Enough about that! Mister Heavenly was next, and they killed it. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical. Their sinister brand of doo wop requires a little bit of finesse to pull off, with the harmonies and the clean surf guitar parts. But they pulled it off masterfully. Every harmony was hit, every poppy guitar solo nailed, and there was plenty of room to go a little crazy in between.

These guys play wonderfully together. Their respective bands really shine through, but still play nice with each other. The sometimes-pretty sometimes-stomping keyboard of Man Man’s Ryan Kattner is a surprisingly great compliment to the surf pop guitar of Islands/Unicorns’ Nicholas Thorburn. Even a little bit of Modest Mouse is evident, especially with the particularly brutal “Bronx Sniper.”

Mister Heavenly played everybody’s favorite Mister Heavenly song. Literally. They played every song on their only album, before the encore. So what do you do when you’re out of songs but still need to do an encore? Well, you play “Hybrid Moments” by the Misfits, of course. Ryan Kattner’s energy that I know and love from Man Man really came out, as he ditched keyboard duties and went into full-on frontman mode, running around the stage and jumping into the crowd. I don’t care what kind of music you play, there’s always room for a good Misfits cover. A perfect end to a great set.