OK, so the Man About Town has been a Man About The House in recent weeks. Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. But I've caught some rockin shows, being more selective in my party-going. For a time anyway.

The Oct. 27th Afterparty at Don Hill's for Alice Cooper's Beacon Theater concert drew a pretty good crowd. A few more lines in the faces, more grey-streaked hair than most venues. Hey but that's cool, great to see some older kids still rockin. I missed the first couple of bands, but was lucky enough to catch Pretty Suicide, featuring the lovely and dynamic Courtney. Michael H and The Bashers followed, with the amazing Richard Fortus on guitar (Guns N Roses, Psychedelic Furs, Honky Toast), Andy Hilfiger on bass, and Thommy Price (Joan Jett's Blackhearts and too many others to mention). Michael performs a mix of his own tunes, and covers as though they are his own, reaching out to engage the audience with his intense personal style. The headliner for the party was GLAMNATION - Alice Cooper's Ryan Roxie, Eric Dover and Chuck Garric, with Thommy Price again on drums. The GLAM meter was pinned, with Eric (in his sexy dress) singing most lead vocals and alternating guitar leads with Ryan. Proficient musicians, all. Hard to tell if it's a glam metal tribute or parody - I'd like to think there was some tongue-in-cheek to it, but you never can tell. I'm especially put off when a professional omits entire verses of standards like Sympathy For The Devil and Ziggy Stardust - yo, this is your JOB, dude, do your homework for us!

A mere two days later (10/29) brought a special Halloween BITCH show to Don Hill's, including several bands. Jim Wallerstein and his band Vacationland came down from Maine (where he lives with his mate, mother of rock-n-roll BeBe Buell) and treated NYC to a great set of songs. Bruce Hubbard (formerly of Gene Pool) followed with a set of his insightful high-quality tunes. And when NY No Stars returned to the stage after months of recording, adding Jimmy Bones on guitar, we remembered how much we'd missed Meghan's endearing, heartfelt style of performance. The Halloween BITCH lineup was intense, with most girls getting into costume a couple of days early, including hostess Monica (normally as female as can be) flaunting a large red strap-on cock. Her inter-song banter was accompanied by the "spooky" sounds of R Lund playing Bach riffs and diminished chords on his organ from the rafters, and the BITCHes rocked the house as always, including newspaper editor Lucky Lawler in her BITCH debut!

This month marked the release of a new Radical Records CD, "NYC ROCK N ROLL," featuring one track by each of 22 of the hottest local bands, compiled and produced by Steve Blush. The release party was spread over three special performance events: Oct 30 at the Union Square Virgin Megastore (6 bands), Nov 12 at Don Hill's (10 bands), and Nov 13 at Continental (8 bands). Excitement ran high at each show, particularly at Don Hill's, where many folks who hadn't been going out in a while returned to make this special Röck Cändy night one of the best in a long time. As I've said before, there's plenty of evidence that rock is not dead as some claim, and Blush (author of the definitive "AMERICAN HARDCORE - A Tribal History" provides an informative history of the current NYC rock scene in the CD insert, reproduced on the CD web site newyorkcityrocknroll.com. On this site (by Lundo) you can also see over 400 photos by Bryan of Radical Records of bands and people at all three release party shows.

Besides all this, I've gotta tell you about one more act that really impressed me this month. At Frank Wood's Nov 7 show down at the Pussycat Lounge, a band called ÆTHOS got me dancing and shaking despite my having been up for over 24 hours. The strong passionate voice of lead singer Amy Douglas is supported by such a funky band of fine musicians (guitar, keyboards, bass, drums) even Mark After Dark (who hates EVERYTHING by the "real thing") was rocking to the beat! Don't miss AETHOS at Don Hill's Dec 10th at 9:30.