Caustic Casanova - The Last Barbarians - Akris -- Asylum - Feb 26 2010

Akris - The soundman was nowhere to be seen when it was showtime, but when he eventually decided to show up, Akris did have enough time for their set (they had another show elsewhere later that night). It was another one of those bass-drum combos which always have me lifting an eyebrow when I see them start. I've seen it work very well with Lightning Bolt and Nomeansno (who sometimes had a third member), but you better get it right. In this case, they did. The woman on bass sang and had got good enough moves on bass to keep the songs interesting. Drone metal is the sound here and the vocals were helpful. The bassist was saying prior to the show that an organ or farfisa might be nice in the future. I would agree, but for now, the sound works well enough.

The Last Barbarians - Here we have a four-piece (guitar, bass, drums,vocals) from Philadelphia. They immediately reminded me of the 80s hardcore scene where a band would take the intensity and energy, but do some oddball moves with a bit of funk or high-not bass playing which is obviously what we had here. The singer was strong and reminded me a bit of the guy from Freeze. The band had chops and the songs were all pretty intense and catchy. The sound was too compressed for my liking. Some of it may be due to the band's choice, but I will blame the sound guy since he was late. There were a few songs that really grabbed me and I do really like this band.


Caustic Casanova - The second time for me, seeing this local three-piece. They were chatting with me before-hand and said they had 50 songs in their itinerary and also try to do different covers regularly. I think that is really helpful, as when I see local bands too many times in a row, I feel like I am reviewing the same show. Not here. The general sound for this band is still hard psychedelic rock. They space out quite nicely or garage it up when they feel like it. Just call it rock, as it does. They medlied a couple covers, and the second one I spotted as Nirvana's "Floyd the Barber".  They remind me of one of my favorites, Motorpsycho, in that it is hard to pin them down, which is a good thing when it is done well. They are not quite Motorpsycho yet, but they will do nicely as we are not in Norway.  Hopefully, more people will discover this band, show by show. On an unimportant note, the guitarist really looks like Glenn Cornick.
 

Quote of the Night: "Sorry, no diet coke tonight. Can I get you a cranberry juice or water?" Normally, I might be bummed when a bar didn't have a diet coke for me, but being that bars serve the worst diet cokes on the planet, this was a good night.