The Mummies Live at Maxwell’s, Hoboken NJ – 6/9/09 (Early Show)

The Kings of Budget Rock

T’s Take:  The self proclaimed “Kings of Budget Rock” dusted off their filthy (and probably smelly) mummies outfits and fucked up gear for a one night two set stint at Maxwell’s in Hoboken NJ, and FSS was there for the early show.

My love affair with these garage rock monsters started in the mid-nineties when I saw the vinyl for their “Never Been Caught” album at Kim’s on Bleecker in NYC.  Who the hell were these guys?  Did they dress like that all the time?  Why is the drummer playing atop an old ambulance?  Were they a band from the sixties?  Sadly I didn’t buy the album that day.  Fast forward a couple years later and I hear a song on local station WFMU called (You Must Fight To Live) On The Planet of The Apes (this is part the reason I donate a couple bucks to the station every year).  Immediately I was a fan.  Later I learned that the Mummies were a late eighties/early nineties band.  They did in fact only play dressed as mummies.  They did indeed tour in that ambulance.  And for a long time they refused to release anything that wasn’t vinyl.

One thing I love about Maxwell’s is that there’s no backstage.  All bands must fight through the crowd to get up on stage and begin playing.  When you’re four guys dressed entirely as mummies this isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Just how exactly these guys were able to play with the instruments they brought is beyond me.  It seriously looked like they picked most of the gear up in the dumpster out back, but goddamnit if it didn’t make their garage rock sound that much more perfect.

The band kept joking that they had to clear us out early for the VIP show that they were playing after.  They wanted everyone to buy up all their merch before they left for their Paris gig so that they could keep it “American”.  They kept trying to kick the guitarist out of the band.  He didn’t seem to want to go anywhere and kept stealing the drummer’s cymbals in protest.  The drummer was really a sight to behold; he sat in this high chair of sorts and was practically standing up while he played.  And the lead singer/organist was certifiable.  When he wasn’t jumping atop his organ, he was wearing it as a hat, or diving underneath it with his microphone jammed down his throat.  The crowd ate up every second of it.  There were girls shaking their heads and screaming like it was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.  You couldn’t help but catch the vibe.  I’m sorry to see these guys go off into the sunset, but at the same time I’m glad I was there.  I bought a button set and a shirt with a mummy on a motorcycle that says, “Kick Me” on the back.  Eat it Frenchies!

P’s Take:  I hate weekday shows. I fucking hate them, always have. Something just feels wrong about rocking on a Tuesday; you can’t really give it your all. But when the FSS heard The Mummies were coming by Maxwell’s in Hoboken, a favorite venue of our click’s since the days of old, I knew we had to do it, Tuesday or not.

We get there and as I finish my first Pale Ale and listen to the opening act, a pretty-good Japanese garage rock group, I’m feeling a lot better about life in general. The Back C.C.’s weren’t entirely on point in my opinion, but they sure as hell had the spirit. They invited their nerdy bespectacled buddy up to the stage to shout out a song for them at one point. This kid flipped as he was about to live his Rock and Roll fantasy; he went for it so hard he dropped the mic, he had to slap his glasses back on to find the stand. Goddamn it he was about to Rock and I salute him.

I looked around me as the place began to fill up for The Mummies 7:30 set of a two set night and it was full of true Rock and Roll believers; old-ass greasers and weirdos, rock nerds and nerdettes and working-stiffs. When the Mummies took the stage in all their cheap Halloween regalia and bad jokes and launched into their comic garage barrage, it just fucking gladdened the soul. There was something so unpretentious about The Mummie’s shit and about everyone else’s too, girls were shakin’ their hair like it was an R and B rave-up from two generations ago, the rock nerds were nodding their heads and the creepy olds were dancing creepily. The Mummies let us know from jump that we were the lesser important crowd of the night (“We gotta get this set over and get you out to make room for the VIP Crowd”), so we knew the set was gonna be shorter and maybe somewhat reserved so as not to gas out before the last show, but it was a fuckin’ fine night of Rock and Roll. Even for a Tuesday.

Be sure to visit our YouTube Channel for Mummies videos from the show.

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