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Kelly-Jane Cotter--Asbury Park Press:
The guys from Trench are ready for their close-up. The four musicians in this creative, high-energy punk band from Toms River have inspired an indie horror film, and will be featured in same. They spent an afternoon last week at the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, filming a scene of “Fans Anonymous,” by the local director Sean Guess. The director heard Trench’s infectious song “My Motto” and envisioned a movie with that same vibe. The manic narrator of “My Motto” is on the prowl, but is skittish about the object of his desire: “Can’t be broken by your love... I don’t wanna die in your arms, no.” It remains to be seen how Guess will bring that love-hate mindset to the screen--the movie is expected to premiere at the end of this year or early in ’08. In the meantime, Trench will spend the summer performing and promoting its new album, due in September. Trench opens tonight for The New York Dolls at The Stone Pony, 913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park. Trench will later hit the road with Frankenstein 3000, who are also on tonight’s bill. Bruce Ferguson, whose scary-sexy voice fuels all of Trench’s songs, is humbled by the gig with the Dolls. “those guys are my idols,” he said. The glam punk sensibility of the Dolls can be heard on a sampler of Trench’s upcoming CD, but this is a band difficult to categorize. Trench is heavily influenced by bands of the early punk scenes, especially The Ramones, The Damned and The Stooges. “We’re All The Same,” for example, has the same warm, encompassing spirit as the Ramones’ freak-show anthems (“Gabba gabba we accept you, we accept you, one of us”), but there’s also an element of the Boomtown Rats in that song. “Runnin’ From The Pain,” a previously released track, brings together the disparate styles of Van Halen, New Order, Depeche Mode and David Bowie. Meanwhile, “Devil Dance,” a new song, drifts into Phil Spector’s realm, with a shimmering aural backdrop and a bridge with a woeful cry worthy of a doo-wopper: “I don’t wanna be alone again.” On the surface, the lyrics can seem like standard-issue punk platitudes, but Ferguson is not a lazy songwriter. His songs are fun, punctuated with ‘70s punk cries of “Hey, hey, hey, hey” and leavened by the “Ooh-ahh-ahh’s” of ‘60s pop. And he can turn the Great American Songbook on its head, with a couplet such as “Coffee, cigarettes, sex and sleep, no, you can’t take that away from me, hey.” “I’m so happy about it,” Ferguson said of the band’s new material. “We’ve been getting a good response from our MySpace page--we’re getting people form Ireland, Japan, who like our songs.” Ferguson’s bandmates are Mikey D., bass and backing vocals; Ciid Birardi, guitar, keyboards and backing vocals; and Bernie Branz, drums. Write it on the bathroom wall: Trench totally rocks. Go see these guys before they become movie stars.
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