The Hipp Pipps at the Map Room at the Bowery Electric

Kevin Shaw & Matt Langone

In a suburban town outside Boston, Massachusetts, an adolescent Matt Langone saw the Beatles perform on television on the Ed Sullivan Show. This event inspired him to learn to play guitar and within a few years he played the New England circuit with the Peytons and the Trademarks. Since relocating to the New York area, he has played lead guitar in the Cynz, the Waldos, and the Trash Mavericks, and presently sings and plays guitar in the Hipp Pipps. Bassist Kevin Shaw (formerly of the BMTs) and drummer Frankie Pipps complete the band. The Hipp Pipps play the local rock band circuit, but each member moonlights in other bands; Langone in Gotham Rockets, Shaw in the Wraycyclers, and Pipps in the Pipptones. The Hipp Pipps released a self-titled album in 2015.

Matt Langone's wife, Zoe Stark, presents a monthly concert series at the Map Room at the Bowery Electric, and on many months the headliner is the Hipp Pipps. Named after one of the band's songs, the new year's opening event was called Rock 'n' Roll Party, and indeed that defined the evening. Langone and Shaw sang lead on high energy party songs, with Langone squinting as he ripped on his guitar, Shaw bopping across the tiny stage to the rhythm of his bass, and Pipps battering his drum kit. The Hipp Pipps covered Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochran, but all the original songs sounded like they could have been transplanted from that era as well. This was as pure a rock 'n' roll party as one can have in 2019.