“The first song is called ‘The Garbage Corridor’ and it explores
a future elevator into space that
shoots garbage at the sun,” explained Alan “Sucia” Smith, a former Newark police officer and
firefighter who plays guitar in the
band. “The whole record is 13
songs relating to or exploring outer space in some way or another.
A lot of the songs are connected
to each other; many are pretty serious and deep, and some are just
silly and fun.
Along with Smith, the band includes Adam “Devil Hands” Falzer, Gerry Griffin, and Jonathan
Riordan. Together, they’ve found
a home away from home at Tierney’s, a landmark in Montclair that
has been run by the same family
for 80 years. Smith says the fam-
ily’s investments in the sound system over the years has turned it
into a very good sounding room.
But it’s the arrangement the club
offers bands that makes it a truly
unique venue.
“One of the great things about
Tierney’s is that the bands take
the whole door and the bar takes
the bar,” said Smith. “It’s one of
the few places where if you put
a good show together — say a 3
band show where we charge $10
a head and are able to get 150
people, that’s $1500 we can split
for the bands. It’s a very rare thing
in independent rock to be able to
do that.”
Successful shows at Tierney’s
have led to bands across the state
contacting them for gigs, but
Smith warns that bands have to
Listen To “Awesome Solar Rocketship” From The New Album
New Jersey Stage
September 2014
pg 84