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Friday, November 10, 2017

The Hipp Pipps at the Map Room at the Bowery Electric

Originally from a town outside Boston, Massachusetts, Matt Langone began playing guitar as a youth after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. He played the New England circuit with the Peytons and the Trademarks until he relocated to the New York area. Since then, he has played lead guitar in several local rock bands, including the Gotham Rockets, the Trash Mavericks, the Cynz and the Waldos. For the past few years, his main project has been the Hipp Pipps with bassist Kevin Shaw (formerly of the BMTs, presently in the Wraycyclers) and drummer Frankie Pipps (presently in the Pipptones). The Hipp Pipps released a self-titled album in 2015.

Zoe Stark presents a monthly concert series at the Map Room that frequently features the Hipp Pipps. On those occasions, such as tonight, the power trio fire straight-forward rock and roll from all engines. The Hipp Pipps' performance tonight was a roots rock set with no hyphens or hybrids. The set included a Chuck Berry cover and an Eddie Cochrane cover and about 10 original songs that sounded like they could have been written by those same pioneers. The energy was higher and the rhythms were speedier than the songs would have been a half century ago, but the songs were just as pure as the sounding fathers of rock and roll would have liked them. Langone's gritty vocals contrasted Shaw's pillow-talk vocals, but the driving spirit united the two vocal sides of the Hipp Pipps. If New York's future scene ever experiences a rock and roll revival, it will begin with the Hipp Pipps.

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