And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead/Funeral Party/Midnight Masses - Rock'n'Roll Hotel - Feb 26 2009

Midnight Masses started things out by singing in a circle with backs to microphones and ended the set the same way with a build to and fade from a strong set of dynamic smooth psychish Americana. Although I sometimes have a bias against larger bands (Vocals/bass/drums/2 guitars/keys/drum or 3rd guitar) who don't sonically show me the need, I got over my bias and got into their steady moving emotional sound. Very accessible and easy to enjoy. One guitarist looked like the mysterious protagonist in Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim and the singer reminded me of a young Phil Lynott--I miss Phil Lynott. This Brooklyn band is on its way to SxSW. Good luck!

Funeral Party hit the stage on time and delivered a nice energetic set. Good noisy independent straight noisy rock with an earnestness that seemed strained at times, but that's a minor criticism. There was some variety in the songs with the guitarist doing a U2 thing and then one intro had me thinking they were going to cover the Dead Kennedys "Holiday in Cambodia" based on the swirling intro. But not to be. Good set.

Having already gotten my money's worth, I was only too pleased to see one more band (with another cool name)...

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead came on to a jam packed room and delivered a strong set which the audience enjoyed. Although it may have been a bit more obvious if it wasn't as jammed as it was and the audience could move, making it look more like a 9:30 Club sellout as opposed to R'n'R Hotel sellout. I used to be able to breathe in this club. But back to the music. This band has a solid loud accessible sound that seems to combine just about every major rock movement since the sixties (except grunge maybe). The amalgamation works for the most part. An annoying crackling buzz marred the set, but it was more noticeable in their monitors than it was in the crowd except for some quiet moments where it was quite annoying. But the quiet moments were few and the band laid it out and delivered.

Quote of Night: From Trail member to soundman... "If you drink white wine and eat artichokes, it tastes like poo."