Live Shows: Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys and The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, ONCE Ballroom, Somerville, MA 7/21/18
Every performance by Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys is truly unique and special. Saturday night's show at ONCE Ballroom in Somerville was unique in that it was a pretty straightforward rock show. The eight piece band took the stage and played a collection of audience favorites as well as new songs. The three new songs the band played seemed to sum up the evening the most. While a lot of Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys's newer material has been on the quieter, more moody and ethereal side of the spectrum, the new songs are much more loud and thrashy. The band is definitely letting their metal flag fly on a few of these. The political climate is influencing the band quite a bit, as they brought back a song that they haven't played in eight years ("No Room") and one of the new songs contemplated the fear of bringing up a child in the current world that includes near constant school shootings ("War Gospel" may have been the name....