A review from a gig at the Tune Inn...
Courtesy of Chris' Live Journal (thanx!!)

Saturday: Saturday was spent at this goofy ass Punkfest at the Tune Inn which I am stricken to review, as I have been avoiding the punk scene like the plague. I have good reason, though, most punk SUCKS. There were Dead Kennedy t-shirts EVERYWHERE.

Anyhoo, I sat through four acts, and...despite my prejudices, three of them were good and two of them I'd even buy a CD from. First up was a band I had run across before, this very single-minded thrashpunk high school band called Fourth Corpse. For what they were striving for though, they did well. The audience *didn't* work itself into a frenzy for only one song, a marked difference from the other bands that night. Their stuff STUNK though. One of their more popular songs was called "Suicide High" and was basically them going "I'm gonna die / Suicide High!". Basically, that was indicative of their entire repertoire. But hey, they're obviously not there for content, just noise.

The next band was GREAT. Real, actual, punk from this band called Slackjaw. Songs with actual lyrics and meaning. One was about all the school shootings and stuff. "So how many of you think all these kids shooting up their schools is fucked up?" Everyone but one guy agreed with him (prompting some verbal beatdown from the lead singer). And the band knew more than three chords. They got into some ska beats with one song (All Together Now). The thing with punk bands, though, is that they could all very easily play covers and I wouldn't be able to tell. But anyway, this is the kind of current punk I could get in to. Something that actually took some thought and practice to do.

The next guys were even BETTER though. These 30-year-olds from Bridgeport who were put on the bill at the last second. They called themselves The Bombsite Boys and did this awesome, charged up, Ramones kind of punk. Stuff that's almost poppish. I coulda listened to them all night.
Then it was back to thrashing with Psychotic Reaction. Mohawks and weird hair and all. The singer had to browbeat the audience into dancing. "Let's all pretend it's cold in here and you have TO DANCE TO KEEP WARM."

There were two more bands, but one of them wasn't local and so I just kinda threw my hands up in the air and left. It was midnight anyway and I wanted to go home. The space next to the Tune Inn had blue light and rave music coming from their door. I wanted to go in so bad, for curiosity's sake, but there were three doormen there and I had no money. So I walked back to my car, parked all the way down on State St. next to cafe nine. The Mocking Birds were playing there. I almost went in. Almost. Except I was really tired of noise in any shape or form at that point.

Liner Notes from the Fairfield Weekly
December 27th, 2001
Bangin' the Bombsite Boys

If you know what's good for you, you'll wrap up your year with a bang and go see the Bombsite Boys at Jimmie's Seaside tonight. In the burgeoning local punk scene (ok, a just-popping-out-of-the-aged-seed local punk scene), the Bombsite Boys remind us what is fun about punk, when it is mixed with pop and played by "old" guys that act like overgrown kids. They may be over 30, but thank God they are.They have little inner angst to spit at their beloved audience and they are not crumbling inside from lack of self-worth (They may, I admit, just be hiding it well). Drummer Jeff Coleman is wild and animated, you half expect him to leap from his seat, shouting with glee. Together with his band buddies, Donn Vanak on bass and Brian Larney on guitar, BSB make music that has everyone hopping and popping around, as giddy as they are. Forget the hardcore nosebleeding bullshit and have fun with this wacked-out trio that simply won't let you escape without moving. If you don't like punk, you'll be converted. If you do, you're probably in your sticker-laden, broken-down car heading to Jimmy's this minute.

No Wave Magazine
Reviews by Rutledge

"Replete with.." CD
Having garnered a handful of rave reviews in the wake of the release of their first EP, Bombsite Boys have returned with a FULL ALBUM’s worth of songs that tow the line between power pop and melodic punk. And if you dig short-and-to-the-point pop/rock/punk, there‘s an awful lot to like here: no song eclipses the 3-minute mark, and half the tunes don’t even make it to TWO! Two songwriters contribute tunes, and each scores big a couple times. Brian Larney’s “Heartstains”, a classic power pop anthem, is the album’s high point. His “Say Nicki” and “The Most Obvious”---with their hard-edged, shamelessly hooky approach to punky pop---sound like they could be Green Day outtakes (I mean that in a GOOD way, really!). Meanwhile, Donn Vanak’s songs are all over the place, sometimes aspiring to pure pop craftsmanship (“Memo to Pamela”), other times going the driving punk route (“As UR Now”), and once even recalling the days when Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard could fart out picture-perfect pop snippets in his sleep (“Charla’s Web”). As a whole, REPLETE WITH is a decent showing from a band that manages to marry a radio-pop aesthetic to the basement punk ethos. Not every song delivers the goods, the vocals are an “acquired taste”, and the production is adequate at best. But the hits outnumber the misses, and the closing cover of Todd Rundgren’s “Determination” (an obscure track off of his 1978 LP, HERMIT OF MINK HOLLOW) is a nice touch. If I were a legit “critic”, I’d give this album three stars out of five.

"0 Top Hits" 7" EP
Glue-sniffing priests and retired werewolves alike are hailing the Bombsite Boys as the Red Ball Jets of the 00's! Belive it: another case study of that rarest of rare musical species---the power pop band with bona fide TESTICLES! An East Coast counterpart to the most formidable Put-Ons, thee Bombsite Boys recall the amateurish punky thunder of a thousand now-obscure new wave pop creatures preserved for an eternity on those TEEN LINE comps and sometimes found in your goofy music-geek uncle's box of 7" treasures (Hey, the dude was tracking down Speedies singles when you and your pals still thought WARRANT ruled the world, Chump!). It's charming shit, indeed--crunchy pop songs oozing that "raw" vibe (minimalist production, guitars out the ass, vocals mixed too low) and reminding us all of the endless possibilities of sonic recycling. Like all good power pop singles SHOULD be, this limited-run EP is destined for obscurity (In 2012, you might find a copy while digging through boxes of Fred Durst workout tape singles in the weird guy's indie record store downtown). But for NOW, the low-rent dance party is in session! Dig the three catchy little numbers that don't suck (the best of which is a cover of the gem "She Sheila", one of the precious few highlights of The Producers' mostly-crappy career).
Worth at least a small jar of mustard in 46 contiguous states of the union (and 36 contiguous states of mind).

This is from Maximum Rock N Roll # 227

BOMBSITE BOYS-"Top Hits" EP
A great power pop combo here. Two strong originals, but a cover of the great PRODUCERS song "She Sheila" falls a little flat due to some flat vocals. But the fact that they even covered the pop classic in the first place earns them my respect. The two originals are not far from later HUSKER DU type pop. Possibly a great band in the making. Pop fans take note on this limited release. (RL)

This is from Shredding Paper # 13

Bombsite Boys- "Top Hits" 3 song 7 inch
This is one helluva great 7 inch, and is as true to the format as you can get, three quick great songs for turning the volume up to 11 and dancing around the room. The A-side has two originals, the B-side is a cover of the Producers' "She Sheila". The originals are both perky pop punk songs, full of AM radio treble, handclaps, and would have to fit in great with anything frm bands like the Romantics and the Plimsouls.Yeeowza! Steve

This is from Razorcake # 8

BOMBSITE BOYS Top Hits: 7" EP
A little bit o' somethin' for everybody here: a little bit of '60's jangle, a little bit o' '70's power pop, a little bit o' punk. Kinda reminiscent of those 70's bands that liked skirting the fine line between mod and punk. Not bad at all.-Jimmy Alvarado.