One of the coolest thing about running this site for the last two years is having the opportunity to see and meet some of the best up and coming bands in the different metro areas that we currently have staff in (New York, Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore, Vegas, San Francisco and Oakland). As we have with The Dirty Pearls, The Tressels, The Statues of Liberty and The Monotonix, we have now had the pleasure of experiencing The Border Cops. Bob and I tried to go into the show with no preconceived opinions of the band, so we didn't listen to any of their music beforehand. I personally prefer to hear a live show before recorded music, simply because that is the heart and soul of a true rock band. So the question is, did The Border Cops pass the test? The answer is a resounding yes!

The band played a set of about 45-55 minutes, which is great for an opener. They clearly have their stuff together as a group. They opened with a political commentary of sorts entitled “Smackdown”. I immediately recognized that this was a formidable group. Lead singer Kurt Mueller has great vocal range and dresses like he shops in my closet (tight jeans, pink dress shirt, solid white tie....all in there, I promise!). While I don't have all of the song titles written down, there were definitely some memorable ones. For Bob and I, hearing a cover of the 90's classic “Peaches” was simply awesome. Also, how can you not love a band with a song called “Rock Your World with My Penis”?

The band itself has an epic sound mix on a lot of their songs. The aforementioned “Rock Your World with My Penis” kicks your ass from beginning to end. Kristian and Adam provide a great dual axe attack that we are seeing more and more from the New York rock scene. On drums, Evan holds down the fort. As I am not an expert on drums, I can't say much more, other than the fact that his timing was perfect and he didn't come out in a robe. Matt is the bass player and seems to drive a lot of the energy on stage. He jumped around like a nine year old on a pogo stick, but got the job done. As mentioned before, Kurt is a great frontman with a ton of potential. He can keep the crowd into it, even though not everybody was there to see them.

We hope to catch this band on a headlining act soon. We don't have any pictures or videos from last night, so if anybody wants to email them to us, we will gladly post them. Please send them to reviews@blogsnroses.com. For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy the video of The Border Cops at the Mercury Lounge below.  Also, please check them out on the web at http://www.myspace.com/thebordercops

Thanks – Vic from Blogs N' Roses