The Grifters

At TT the Bears Place
by Sven Bulevard

As I walk into T.T.’s, I’m wondering what the fuck drugs they’re giving away ’cause the place is packed on a Wednesday night and who are the Grifters? Well, the boys from Memphis just got picked up by Sub Pop, and although their set started damn slow (I think the bass player might have been asleep for the first few numbers), they eventually kicked it in with strong dual guitar work and a lot of drums.

As is the case with most shows I see at T.T.’s, the mix pretty much sucked, but the songs didn’t seem to suffer too much. The set was spotty (the band took a butt break after only four tunes and tried a guitar-vocal only jam that didn’t work) but their Velvet Underground sensibility meets ’90s power chord rock sounded pretty good by the end of the night (beer factor included). Though I was quite drunk, on my way out, I found someone from the Grifter camp. She said they’d been in Boston before and that they’d even played at the “Middle India” last tour. I didn’t find it necessary to correct her. I wished her and “The Drifters” the best.