Boston rock ‘n’ rollers Crash Midnight have been packing clubs on the East Coast and are now kicking off a nationwide tour with Toledo as their first stop.

Described as “the upstart bastard sons of Iggy Pop and Aerosmith,” the group will bring its high-energy show to Frankie’s on March 3.

The band, whose debut full-length album, “Lost in the City,” is set for release by Bronx Bridge/Fontana/Universal Records this spring, is antsy to get out of the studio and on the road – starting with Ohio, where a few former members of its original lineup were from, said lead guitarist Shaun Soho.

“Ohio’s just a great rock area, between Cleveland and Columbus the college town and Cincy, and I can’t wait to see what you are like in Toledo,” Soho said. “Some of the best shows we’ve had have been in Ohio. I’m excited to get up there and see you all.”

Crash Midnight

Hard rock and roll with a punk delivery is the band’s signature style, Soho said. The group’s first single, “Made for the Money,” which hit radio airwaves and iTunes earlier this month, pays homage to Finnish band Hanoi Rocks, one of Crash Midnight’s biggest influences.

“These guys are kind of the secret sauce behind our influences,” Soho said. “They kind of sound like Aerosmith mixed with The Clash.”

Other influences include the New York Dolls, Guns N’ Roses, the Ramones and former Cleveland group The Dead Boys.

“Our band a lot of times on stage is basically like a car wreck: Sometimes interesting and cool, but you definitely can’t look away from it,” said Soho, who is an original member along with mono-monikered bassist Bo. Drummer Tommy Maz and guitarists Tony Pizzo and Todd Friedman complete the lineup.

It’s true the band’s name was inspired by a real-life car wreck, Soho said.

“After a late night partying, Bo was speeding home when he lost consciousness, awoke to a face full of airbag, and his car wrapped around a telephone pole,” according to the band’s website. “He called Shaun Soho not to help him out of the heap but to tell him he’d found the perfect name for the band they would form.”

Crash Midnight formed in 2005, but was stymied early on by legal complications stemming from a bad contract, which prevented the group from pursuing a full recording deal, Soho said.

“We went through all kinds of stuff. We had to stop doing everything. We had labels interested, but couldn’t sign,” Soho said.

Although frustrating, the experience was a blessing in disguise, Soho said.

“It ended up being a great thing for us. We took a lot more time with these songs, let them mature. I think if we would have come out with them then, we wouldn’t have been near as happy with it,” Soho said. The band signed with its current label in 2009.

Living together in a cramped Boston apartment provided the inspiration for many songs.

“We had a two-bedroom apartment with five guys jammed in,” Soho said. “All the shit that went on in there is pretty much ridiculous, and is the root cause of pretty much all the material for this album.”

The single “Made for the Money” is a crowd favorite, Soho said.

“Everybody gets up and dances and ends up singing the chorus even if they haven’t heard it before,” he said.

One of Soho’s favorites is “Whisky Rose,” which is “kind of our homage to nostalgia and relationships and things not necessarily always working out the way you hope they would, but sometimes they work out just the same,” Soho said.

“City Girl” is for “when you want to get aggressions out,” Soho said.

“It’s kind of like Iggy Pop’s ‘Search and Destroy,’” Soho said. “Just an off-the-wall hard punky song. You can get a lot of emotion out during that song.”

The first song the group wrote together, “151,” wasn’t even intended to be a real song, Soho said. It was written as a joke while listening to Guns N’ Roses’ “Night Train” at a party and laughing about “drinking harder stuff than our heroes.” After the group kept getting requests for it at shows, they decided to add it to the record.

Soho said the album has been a long time coming, but the group is proud of the result.

“We didn’t toss anything on there to get to 12 songs; every single song is something we’re really behind,” Soho said. “I like the approach of this band. All the songs are very plug and play. We leave everything on stage every time we play. I think the audience deserves everything we’ve got every night.”

Frankie’s is located at 308 Main St. Local acts Bullets Before Beauty, GREYLINE and GrindLine along with tour partner All Thee Above will open. Cost is $10 presale or $12 at the door.

For more information, visit www.crashmidnight.com.

Tags: Crash Midnight, Frankie's

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 9:47 am and is filed under Arts and Life, In Concert.
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