Wildlife City - Lethal Peanut - Western Affairs -- Red Palace - Mar 29 2012

Lethal Peanut - Since I was covering the Rock'n'Roll Hotel show I had to miss Western Affairs and only catch 2 1/2 songs of the middle band here. It is easy to see that this Vocals, guitar, bass, drums combo has a classic blues rock style that goes well in a bar or rock club. I'll need a full set to judge the songs better, but I did see some excellent rock guitar work and everyone else did their job well. The bass player even pulled out a violin which was a nice touch. They rock and the guitarist knows his craft.

Wildlife City - Their bio mentions five medical students bored after 2 months of school forming this band? Like most doctors, they may not have the math skills, as they are a four-piece with a couple guitars and rhythm section. Immediately, I am a lot happier tonight as this is what is supposed to happen in a club. The noisy people are all up front and are noisy because they are responding to the music, while the people on the periphery are attentive and into it in their own quiet way (see Aunt Martha review at Rock'n'Roll Hotel below for what I am talking about). It is really a simple formula if people will think about something beyond their own mundane existence a bit more frequently. Anyway, these guys do not knock your socks off with loud guitars. In fact, they don't opt for a lot of pedals and have a nice clean sound. They do manage to balance their pop hooks with rock power and pace and create some really catchy music. It has an early 70s feel to it, but it is akin to the good stuff of that era that got the radio play on the cool college stations. They almost had a soca beat on one song and did vary things well. A couple of the songs had some creative guitar interplay and have definitely raised my interest in this band. Unfortunately I caught only 20 minutes of the set before I had to rush back and finish my other review. Cloning procedures are not where they need to be for me to cover all that I want to and I really would not want another of me around anyway, so half a set is better than no set. And it was certainly enough to get me interested enough to do this again some time. This band has the right attitude and the musical skills to match. Good things await.

Quote of the Night: paraphrasing Abraham Simpson... "God gives us the wisdom when we grow old to find fault with everything he has created." I really don't want to turn into this, really I don't. That's one reason I still hit the clubs hard. So please... would you noisy patrons save your trivial conversations to between sets, or use your indoor voice, or just go to bars where you can sound idiotic in the presence of other idiots and come back for the one band you may want to see. Thus ends what is likely no less than the 15th time I have blogged on this issue.