Twin Peaks - White Reaper - Shirt/Pants -- Rock'n'Roll Hotel - May 1 2015

Shirt/Pants - This Virginia band looks and seems quite young. One of the giveaways is the erratic stage patter where there was not a lot of comfort or coherence. But when they launched into their music, there were many interesting things at work. Best of all was the lead guitar, which was busy in a creative manner with plenty of pace and surprise. The overall style was reminiscent of early Lemonheads crossed with Rights of the Accused, although the soundman, Dennis, had a more accurate take with hearing a lot of Pavement in their sound. We agreed that there is a lot there to work with. I would be disappointed if this was an old band mailing it in, but these guys have every chance to fully put together their talents and become a serious force. I hope they go for it.

White Reaper - From the fertile grounds of Louisville, comes this hard charging quartet featuring guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. The players rip through ferocious punk power pop and sound a lot like the Dickies, as the vocals and pop melodies are quite similar. One cut reminded me of the Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz', although much closer to how the Damned played it. I really enjoyed the keyboards farfisa-esque sound with its loopy fun melodies working of the fury of the guitar and bass. They delivered tonight and they got my heart pumping.

Twin Peaks - There's another guitarist added to the lineup I saw last August at the DC9. I thought that might be a bit of overkill, but it all gelled quite nicely tonight. They were even more furious and even a bit tighter as they take their Guided by Voices styled classic garage rock and infuse it with youthful punk energy. They pull back often with hook laden pop rockers, but it is still pretty assertive stuff. They are still young, but are getting quite comfortable with playing on stage, touring, and working an ever increasingly populated room. Good things await and they are quite good right now.

Continuing the Excessive theme quiz (and excessive isn't a criticism, necessarily)... What famed keyboardist uses this synthesizer, which while excessive in size, is a vintage Moog, which couldn't have been any smaller at the time?