Friday, September 18, 2009

Sian Alice Group/Polite Sleeper/The Console War - Red & the Black - September 17 2009

The Console War - Two guys with electric guitars, some keyboards and one guy went to a small mismatched drum kit at times. Pretty much shoegaze rock with vocals heavy on the reverb. When the guy switched to drums, it was alarmingly powerful. Overwhelming almost, but cool. Decent and well received by a sizable crowd.

Polite Sleeper - Three piece with drummer, keyboards and an acoustic guitarist/singer. Backup vocals from the other two as well. Simple, good quality song-writer rock was pretty much the menu here. Guitarist had energy to burn and stalked about a bit like a young Elvis Costello or David Byrne back in the day. I sensed the songs were a bit smarter than average but I rarely pick up fully on that issue unless I listen to a CD many times as I really don't pay close attention to lyrics until many listens. Still, a good delivery from this Brooklyn based band.

Sian Alice Group - Wow. They delivered the knockout blow. I hadn't seen anything this dreamy cool since United Bible Studies who they reminded me of, although sounding a little more ethnically neutral. Very dreamy psychedelic post-shoegaze rock. Even some freak-out psyche moves, amazing. Female singer percussionist fronts a rhythm section, keyboardist and guitarist. I could place this between the Velvet Underground and Vetiver (which alphabetically would make them Venom, but thankfully no dull death metal here). Some small instrument shifting and a trumpet briefly work their way in, too. The small crowd ate it up. This UK band is doing a lengthy tour and hopefully they will get the needed PR before the shows as that is what brought me to this one. Truly PR I am very thankful for.

Quote of the Night: "Don't act like you don't know who I am". No, that's not a near quote from Serena Williams berating of a linesperson. It was some very loud guy in Popeye's carrying on an unwanted conversation with the cashier either trying for a date, free food or both as he was loud but unclear. The manager came out to confront him in the street after he left and all was well. Always an adventure at Popeye's.

1 comment:

Will Copps said...

Hey David- Just came across your review. Thanks so much for the kind words about us (The Console War) and glad you liked the show!