Howl, Scream, Stomp – Messer Chups, Bloodshot Bill and The Jagaloons – A night of Surf and Rockabilly at No Fun – 11/3/25

Howl, Scream, Stomp – Messer Chups, Bloodshot Bill and The Jagaloons – A night of Surf and Rockabilly at No Fun – 11/3/25

By Dean Giagni

A cool fall night in November quickly got hot and sweaty with a triple bill of energetic surf rock, down and dirty rockabilly and space guitar, Tuesday night at No Fun.

Twangy reverb and glittering surf riffs with an alt attitude are a hallmark of local favorites, the Albany based The Jagaloons. Their influences spread out in all directions from Dick Dale to Link Wray but incorporate a punk sensibility and unique East coast flavor. With the solid, driving rhythms of bassist Josh Welf and drummer Geoff Kelley to make you move, Kurt Stegemann’s nimble guitar glides over every song. Driving and percussive without losing the laid back, late night surf rock sensibility, The Jagaloons are perfect example of the cultural, geographic and nostalgic reach of Surf Rock some 70 years on.

Next up, a one-man band powerhouse from Montreal, Bloodshot Bill. Radiating headliner energy from a cheap folding chair in the center of the stage, playing a snare and bass drum with his feet, hunched over his beat-up Galaxy guitar, he howled, growled, grunted and whistled the crowd into a frenzy of dancing, clapping and screaming. Dressed in the Rockabilly uniform of denim overalls, a striped t-shirt and straw cowboy hat he blasted his way through a too short set of selections from his over 22 record releases since 2001. He immediately won the crowd over with his high-energy, all-in performance style, using the neck of his guitar as additional percussion and initiating call and response from the audience, daring them to follow back with his snaring, howling and barking.

Hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, Messer Chups (which translates roughly as Knife Lollipop or Knife Suck) dive into the Surf genre with a distinctly Eastern European, Slavic seasoning. Slick and professional, cool and calculated; Messer Chups mesmerized the crowd with the tight, effortless technical guitar work of Oleg Gitarkin (really?) in his immaculate black suit, while the rhythm section of Zombierella (stage names, anyone?) on bass and Mattia Bertolassi banging away on drums keep the whole thing together. Light on vocals but heavy on the sparkling spacey swirl of guitar, they wowed and surprised the crowd with a cover of Kraftwerk’s The Model, and later in the set a creepy Halooween influenced instrumental punctuated with Oleg’s creepy Vincent Price (their favorite horror icon) style evil laugh.