The Lord Calverts at Otto's Shrunken Head

Kevin Lydon

New York-based Jed Becker played keyboards in local bands Surface to Surface and Combo Yeah in the 1990s but then left the stage and moved behind the scenes to underscore music for children’s television shows and advertising campaigns. Becker met guitarist Askold Buk, who similarly scored television documentaries. Their friendship grew and they decided to recruit musicians and form a rock and roll band. Having no history together, they concocted a fake back story about being a garage rock band from Baltimore, Maryland, who had a few obscure albums in the 1960s. They called their band the Lord Calverts, the name crafted after the 17th century Lord Baltimore, Sir George Calvert. Since its earliest days, the Lord Calverts has consisted of Becker and Buk, vocalist Kevin Lydon, bassist William X. Harvey (Urban Verbs), and drummer Rich Capitelli (Gary U.S. Bonds, Jon Secada, Brian Setzer). The Lord Calverts in 2015 released its one album, The Lord Calverts … Now!

Steve Krebs hosts the Flip Flop and Fly night at Otto's Shrunken Head on the first Friday of each month. The Lord Calverts came on stage wearing crisply-pressed black suits and ties, but from the first notes, the band ripped into grimy, slimy rock and roll. Lydon put on his best bluesy vocals, utilizing advantageously an expansive range that allowed him to build songs to a high crescendo, while his band mates blasted away with fast and fiery rock and roll rhythms. The music was intentionally as raw and primitive as 1960s garage rock, but with a dueling guitar attack that was more stinging and grinding than typical music from that period. The passion and immediacy of the music impacted with a wallop, leading the band to jump around on the small stage and the audience to get out of their chairs to shake their hips impulsively. The Lord Calverts' spit-and-polish set was incendiary.