Watermelon - Paperhaus - North Country - Gallons to Ounces -- Black Cat - Nov 27 2013

Gallons to Ounces - Seemingly from North Florida or Georgia, but actually from our DC vicinity comes this classic southern rock line-up complete with keyboards, bass, drums, and guitar. Well, that is one guitar as opposed the cliched three guitar line-up, but there is still plenty of guitar in this bluesy soulful rock outfit. The band gets rolling at 8:18 which means only about 10 of the eventually 50 people are there at the start, but at least it filled up rather quickly. Four area bands, holiday travel... this probably should have been booked in the smaller downstairs stage. Yet there was still enough energy to make this enjoyable set work. The band all have the ability to carry their parts where they both stand out as well as fit into the song's structure. The guitarist handles the lead vocals and has the power to liven up the material. It is in the classic Allman Brothers, Little Feat style with its southern blend of three or four genres. They move from fast to slow and focus on a specific genre a bit more in certain songs, which make for nice variety. The only thing to work on would be to create more distinctive songwriting as the most memorable number was their ripping cover of "Crosstown Traffic". The crowd really enjoyed the set and it got the evening off to a nice start.

Unfortunately for the rest of this show, I had to be off to the DC9 for another engagement (I am working on bringing in other writers next year, so I don't have to double book myself in future). I hope it went well for all bands as they all do a great job almost every time I see them.