[ATTENDED: February 7, 2020] Suffacox [Mach 2]
When I entered Boot & Saddle, I saw that the opening band was named Suffacox. I had never heard of Suffacox and was rather puzzled by the name.
I was even more surprised when I saw the band setting up because I was standing a few feet from the stage and a guy kind of squeezed in front of me (which I thought was kind of rude as there was so much empty space). He then proceeded to remove his coat and soon enough I realized he was the guitarist for Suffacox. Whoops.
When the band started, the guitarist, John Terlesky, told us that they were Suffacox… Mach 2. He said that they had been a band in the mid 90s and now they were back together again.
In their first incarnation they were led by Wayne Hamilton (whom they spoke of as if I’d know who he was, which I don’t). Hamilton has passed on and now the rest of the original band is back with an extra guitarist and a manager/backing vocalist.
Then they started playing and I really enjoyed their blend of 70s garage rock mixed with 90s garage rock attitude.
Turns out John Terlesky is a celebrity of sorts in the Easton/Bethlehem area. He is known as Brother JT and has released four solo albums in small quantities. But he is best known as the guitarist or The Original Sins. He’s also in a side project called Vibrolux. And he really was a lot of fun to watch. His guitar style is very loose, almost sloppy, and yet there was never any doubt that he was a master at his instrument.
Suffacox songs were just chock full of interesting riffs. Check out the weird opening of “Sniff” with the great dual guitar leads which then shifts to verses which sound like early 1970s Pink Floyd. I enjoyed that Terlesky had a slide on his finger and played a wild, noisy guitar solo using the slide.
I was still trying to figure out this band when they played the second song. This song, “I Like Plaid” is funny and weird and perfectly 90s, with quiet and a loud sections and the screamed lyric of “I like plaid.”
After a couple of songs I realized that the guy in the middle (whose name is J. Cox) was not the lead singer at all. I did love his Mondrian socks. he told us that he was just trying to be useful up there with his tambourine and shaker and occasional backing vocals. Online it says that he is their manager as well.
The band was pretty much introduced only by first names. And even doing some sleuthing I can’t find the last name of second guitarist Mike. 
Mike introduced the next song as being about Evel Knievel. It’s called “Snake River.” It’s got a big dumb alt rock sound with a shouted bridge and chorus and it was a lot of fun.
Terlesky said Hamilton wrote the next song, “Signs” when he was working a job making signs (he said they were quite beautiful).
I gathered that lyrics weren’t of paramount importance for Suffacox. Perhaps words had no meaning to the band as I still have no idea what Suffacox is supposed to mean. It seemed like the riff and melodies were more important than words. Like on “Pumpkin Girl.”
For “Wicked Little Town” he introduced Christine Weiser on bass who played the cool thumping opening riff. Turns out Weiser has a lot of other things going on. In addition to playing in the band Mae Pang, as well as The Tights, she has also written two novels and is (or was, not sure the time frame of this info) the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the literary magazine Philadelphia Stories and the Editor for Tech & Learning magazine.
The range of the songs was fun with the punky “Aeroplane” allowing Terlesky to have a wild soloing section. This breakneck-paces song was followed by the much slower “Jersey Side.” Terlesky asked if anyone there liked Jersey. There was a surprisingly negative reaction, I thought. But then he said at least the gas is cheaper. And that is the crux of “Jersey Side.” It also featured the most anachronistic lyrics I could imagine
Baby we can take a ride, cross the bridge to Jersey side
try to find ourselves some cheaper gas
Baby we can take a ride, cross the bridge to Jersey side.
try to find some liquor or some … grass
Grass? It sounded really funny in 2020 and was even more surprising to realize it was written in the 90s, although even musically it sounded very 70s.
In addition to Terlesky and Weiser, the other original member is drummer Lou Cooper who pounded the hell out of the drums and was super nice after the show.
They ended the set with Death Girl. On their soundcloud page, the song is really fast and heavy, but they added a slow almost comical intro which eventually migrated into the thrashing punk end.
There was another song on the set list and it seemed like Terlesky had started a new song, but after a minute or so, he said they were done and J. Cox asked, are we really done? And they were.
While the band was packing up I chatted with Cox who was standing out in front of the stage. I told him I felt bad I’d never heard of the band the first time around but that I really liked them. And he seemed suitably pleased about that.
I’ll never learn what Suffacox means, I’m sure, but I’m very curious to hear what else they do.
Here’s a video from Markit Aneight
SETLIST
- Sniff
- I Like Plaid
- Snake River
- Signs
- Pumpkin Girl
- Wicked Little Town
- Aeroplane
- Jersey Side
- Death Girl
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