punk rockers the guts reunite, but for how long?

Let us be the 50th source to let you know—The Guts are back together. Word spread very quickly over the last month, and at the Muddy River last week, a Tuesday show booked by bass player Nate Doyle was packed with sloppy drinkers and sock-hop style outfits.

Doyle claims that the good number of folks coming out has more to do with the infrequency of their shows than it does with the entertainment they provide.

“Shows sound like fun and there’s nothing else to do on a Tuesday night,” Doyle says about the turnout.

The band has been playing together since 1999, but broke up a year ago when Doyle decided to move to California, permanently. But he was back in two weeks, and now Geoff Palmer is again singing rhyming couplets and playing guitar while looking up into the microphone, laid-back Ben Rand is supplementing with rhythm guitar, Rick Orcutt is beating the crap out of his drums as usual, and it’s as though Doyle’s vocals and bass were put in a time capsule for a year, coming out lemony fresh and smelling like an ode to Green Day.

They’re the same middle-finger-flipping Guts you used to love, with an attitude-tinged garage simplicity that’s uncomplicated, memorable and fun: “Here comes MaryJane, the girl I like/ Walkin’ around actin’ so uptight,” sang the boys and the crowd in unison.

But there’s a rub. According to Doyle, they’ll play four shows, but probably won’t book in this area after August.

But with dates on the Seacoast at the Brickhouse on June 11 (all-ages) and June 27, and a possible “Greatest Hits” release on Schenectady, New York’s Cheapskate Records, do we really think they’re going away after these few shows?

“There’s this thing called super-saturation,” Doyle says. “If you play out too much, people take it for granted.”

He explains that they might book a few more shows after that, perhaps out of this area. Boston is a possibility, and while touring is unlikely in the near future, it’s not out of the question.

Orcutt says he wouldn’t mind playing more shows, despite recently starting Orcutt Landscaping, a company he runs out of Newmarket. Palmer agreed, and even Rand, who has been writing a bit of music since the break up last year, says that he likes writing music with The Guts and that a permanent reunion would be a welcome thing.

“I’d like to continue with the band, but of course, we’d have to talk about it,” Rand says.
They do have tons of fun, ya know.   

Doyle has strong feelings about the frequency with which bands play the area. In general, he feels as though the small pond of our music scene is easily flooded with the same music by the same people playing the same couple of venues.

Is the solution found in dissolving The Guts?

“We just haven’t talked about it,” Palmer says.

Beyond playing out, though, there is the issue of their out-of-print and sold-out material. Cheapskate Records has offered to put their omnibus onto one release, with the possibility of adding two new never-before-heard songs.

“Getting three people on the same page with writing music is like being married,” Doyle notes. Let’s hope this process goes smoothly.

And there’s still a rumor going around that Doyle is again thinking about moving out west. He says that the idea has been scrapped, and that he’ll stay in the Seacoast area—but it’s all a bit of a mystery.

So the fans of The Guts are faced with another string of “Last Shows Ever,” as they were last year. There’s no better way to pack a venue than by telling everyone you might never play again, and the upcoming shows should be hullabaloos.

“Nothing has changed from a year ago,” Doyle says. “You see us now, and we’re who we were a year ago, playing the same songs in the same way.”

Good thing, too. It’s heaps of fun.