Gayngs - Glasser King -- Black Cat - Oct 5 2010

Glasser - After two nights off which felt like two weeks, it was time to hit the clubs and see what they will provide for me tonight. Glasser provided some moody electronic pop rock that was much more subdued and edgier than say that of Caribou. They had a guitarist who played more for textural soundscaping, a drummer, a keyboardist who also did addtional drumbeats and electronics and a female singer. The singer was ecellent with her vocals leading the songs on top of the mix. She reminded me of Sharon Knight which is a reference no one will know, so I will change that to reminding me of some of the classic folk-rock female singers. One song featured vocals and light guitar playing a bass line. The rest were noisier, but vocals were the key and a good edgy yet dreamy mood prevailed. Slick, but enticing. Nice set.

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Gayngs - Gayngs indeed. A gayng of I think ten people came out on stage. There were three guitars, rhythm section, lead vocals and three guys I could not tell what they were doing, although two were seated and clearly some keyboards came through. Lots and lots of vocal mics were important as it was kind of odd that so many people created such quiet music. There were some jarring volume moments and at times a song rocked out a bit, but for the most part this was lush pop music in the nature of 10cc. This is the second offshoot of Bon Iver I have experienced. Odd that offshoots of an act that made one album are so active, but thus is the nature of the much over-hyped Bon Iver album. I did like the drummer's off-shoot album (Sean Carey's "All We Grow"), but don't think a whole lot of Bon Iver. I was interested to see where I would rank Gayngs. After this set, I would put them in the middle. There is a nice pop element to the songs, but only a few of them moved me much. I did rather like the early Public Image like song they did with the heavy Wobble-like bass and intricate Levine-like guitar moves. The crowd enjoyed the set as it was well done. However, the club was not quite half-full meaning this was overpriced at $20 or that this band has a good cult audience thus far. Maybe a little of both.

Quote of the Night: "Thanks to everybody who was quiet for that" from the opening band vocalist after the song with just her and light bass notes. Unfortunately, as usual (here he goes again), her thanks go to about half of the crowd. She was nicer about it than I would be as I really do not understand the mindset of people who pay $20 to see live music and then engage in non-stop idiotic conversation that they really would understand the idiocy of, if they just stop and thought about it. I don't mind music-related chat now and then during a set, but just watch some of these idiots some time. My dagger stares don't seem to work when I watch them. Perhaps it is time to inject myself into their trivial conversations and suggest that if their points are so important, then they should be on-stage sharing them with us some time.