Sweet Apple – Habana Calle 6

Sweet Apple, the latest side project from J Mascis is a fairly new band, but you wouldn’t have known it by their gig at the tiny Habana Calle 6. Led by Cobra Verde front man John Petkovic, with Mascis on guitar and drums, the quartet plowed through a brilliantly rough set of hard charged power pop,crafted and purged by these veterans of various bands. Under changing lights of purple hues , the band looked bruised and slightly battered. This was a perfect costume for the slightly askew and sometimes straight ahead rock numbers the band laid out for the crowd. Mascis, as he usually does,kept his shy eyes down and focused on the neck of his guitar. Renown as a former indie guitar god and prolific songwriter, he braved no real new territory here, but the songs were raucous enough to satisfy even the deep cut Dinosaur Jr. nerds in attendance.