The Idolizers/Roger That!/Norman Westberg @ Sleepwalk, Brooklyn, NY 2/10/25

Kenny from Roger That! has been putting Monday nights together at his local Sleepwalk every few months and this was one of those nights. Who are the Idolizers? Kenny told me that he thought I would know him and sure enough I'd seen leader Mike Dee around out and about many times over the years. I totally forgot he was in Born Loose when they first started. That was Larry May the singer from the Candy Snatchers band. Mike was on their 2009 debut but left at some point after to earn the "Discogs strike" through his name listing the band members. Anyway, The Idolizers were excellent garage rock. They reminded me of a band that should be on the bill with the Lyres, since Mike has a similar vocal range to Jeff "Monoman" Connolly.

Roger That! had a couple new ones. I've now seen them enough times to detect that and singer Paul Bernstein noted after one of them that they were going to get back to the hits. They crank out material and I know Kenny mentioned some studio work the other day for them, so perhaps the end of 2025 or 2026 will see a new Roger That! LP. Hard to believe it's coming up on half a year the Flashback Fever came out.

Norman Westberg I've known since the 90's or so and run into him from time to time but got a chance to catch up and talk over a casual beer seated at the bar after the show. While I'm writing this, I'm listening to a CD he gave me of band recordings he did with Doug Gillard of Guided By Voices a few years ago that has now been released. The band is called Flowers Destroy and the album is called Hawks Listen. These are more more straightforward "indie rock" type songs than say the art noise epics of the Swans that Norm recently rejoined for the forthcoming album and extensive touring the end of this year into next. Maybe along the lines of what The Whimbrels, who Norm joined, are doing.

As for what Norm did tonight, it was his patented one man with a guitar, a bunch of pedals on the table, and most importantly, the hourglass. I was hoping to get some footage of the hourglass being flipped but I missed one of several flips and focused on the drones and delay pedal fingerpicked jams. Now the solo on the last track "Beyond" on the Flowers Destroy CD is making my ears perk up and the room is silent. Time to restart the album and make more coffee.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Roger That! @ Mercury Lounge 1/22/25

Roger That! @ Sleepwalk 10/25/24

The Whimbrels @ Mama Tried 10/5/24

Mirror Queen @ The Meadows 9/12/24

Mirror Queen @ The Kingsland 7/16/24

Town Cryer @ Cowgirl Seahorse 1/20/25