The Thiefs - Classified Frequency -- Jammin Java - Oct 26 2013

Classified Frequency - After some time off, I get back into the swing of live music with two Saturday shows--first up, a matinee at Jammin Java who also had a morning event for kids and will have an evening show as well. But here, it is a couple of hard rocking local trios. This Maryland based band kicks things off with volume and skill. For me, it was a case of two discussion points. The instrumental breaks, solos and overall cohesiveness was good, but the songs did not quite connect with me and reminded me of early 1970s material that I could never fully get into. They have a couple that worked well and the more energized moments seemed the best. But most disturbing was that the bass player had a voice that was very close to Harry Shearer, nothing he can help and maybe that can be used to their advantage. But they did a decent enough job and could develop into a decent outfit in time.

The Thiefs - Another local trio hits the stage with a very similar old school hard rock sound. This set works a lot more for me as the songs are more direct, straight forward blasts of fun. They are a cruder version of Dust or Andromeda with good pace and power to make it all work. A lot of throwback rock bands have added punk rock pace and energy into the mix and the Thiefs display a lot of that in many of these songs. There is a polite crowd here and it is hard to fully judge bands in daylight hours, despite the club's thick curtains, but the band went over well enough. They do need to work on their stage patter a bit, but they were having fun and translated that well enough out to the crowd. They can hold their own on a good old school rock bill in this region's clubs. They rock, and that is good enough for me.