It was a hot night in New York City, and things got even hotter at Arlene’s Grocery when Panzie took the stage, returning with yet another hard hitting performance.
Everyone in the room was excited to see Jasin Cadic (lead vocals), DC Gonzalez (guitar), Kevin Jones (bass), Jonnie Rockit (guitar) and John Servo (drums) tear it up on stage. Their new hit release “Take Off Your Mask” has drawn a lot of attention and word was out this show was not to be missed. The best part was getting a Panzie mask at the door when you mentioned their name. What’s better than that!? Well, I guess if you’re a mask collector like me then yes, it’s a big deal.
Panzie has a fantastic stage presence, Jasin brings the theatrics with his interesting and wild costumes. Kevin’s face paint was dark and intense; they all bring their own style. The first song they performed was a new one, “Scene of the Crime.” It was loud, hard and heavy. Getting down to the next song “All American” gives you an immense rock n roll feeling that is driven by the fantastic guitar riffs.
Meanwhile my favorite song of the night was “Dance” which was up next. Jasin wears a glittery red jacket and shades. The song starts off with Kevin strumming the bass, the sounds of John hitting the cymbals in the background and then the guitars get right into it. “Shape Shifter” another new song added to the night, was gladly welcomed by the crowd. Jasin asked the crowd “Who has a mask?” and proceeded to hand out Panzie masks for the crowd to wear during their next song, “Take Off Your Mask”. It was a sight to see, everyone wearing ghoulish white Panzie masks and rocking out.
The show also had a special appearance from another well known NYC rock band, Killcode. Killcode’s lead singer Tom Morrissey was invited on stage to perform “Jezebel” with the band. Tom expressed how much he favored Panzie among the NYC underground rock scene. There was a lot going on stage with this song, not only did they have Tom as a guest vocalist but they also had Danny Ray joining them on stage playing his saxophone. It added a bluesy effect to the song, which added a different tone to the band. The fans were digging it.
After the show I asked Jasin, how Panzie came together with Danny Ray in order to add the bluesy feel to “Jezebel.” He told me he has known Danny for a while and always wanted him to join Panzie for a few songs on stage. Danny invited the band members to come to a Jesse Malin show and watch his performance. At that particular performance, Indofunk Satish was also performing alongside Danny and Jasin expressed how good both of them sounded together. It worked out and Danny Ray was able to be a part of Panzie’s show. The guys in the band were eager and Jasin couldn’t be happier that his band mates are very supportive of mixing the hard rock sound of Panzie with the blues. He feels his band mates are talented musicians and they are willing to push the envelope, something that is very important to Jasin as an artist.
As their set was winding down, Jasin told the crowd about his project Sidemen: Long Road To Glory that he is involved in alone with business partner Scott D. Rosenbaum. For those who don’t know, Jasin has been writing movie scripts since 2008 along with Scott and their first feature film was “The Perfect Age of Rock n Roll” (2011). Since the development of Sidemen: Long Road To Glory, Jasin has become more and more influenced by blues music.
John and Jasin are all very inspired by the blues, so they decide to perform a blues cover. They chose “Evil” by Howlin Wolf. They also invited James Clisset on harmonica, Indofunk Satish on trumpet, and Danny Ray on saxophone to perform with them. The mix of the harmonica, horns, hard sounding guitars and drums was incredible. I was happy to see the two worlds of hard rock and blues colliding. Here is a direct quote from Jasin on the subject:
“Myself personally I’ve always been a fan of how horns sound in rock music and on top of that I especially feel that the
Panzie sound just lends itself to horns, especially the tenor sax , it just adds a whole other level of nastiness to
the sound.”
Toward the end of their set Jasin thanked everyone for coming out and he thanked his long time friend Tommy London, as it’s always great working with him. Panzie then invited Marty lead singer of Midnight Crisis to sing “Sonic Reducer.” It was such a fun show and the reaction of the crowd proved that no matter what, Panzie is sure to give you one hell of a show. No future shows have been announced as of yet. There is talk of a possible Halloween show, but it’s still under wraps. Stay tuned!
