Mercies - Teen Mom -- Black Cat - Aug 7 2011

Teen Mom - This is the first time I have seen this trio. Rich, hard, melodic indie rock pummels out of the PA instantly. There some quirky quiet moments with a Pixies-like dynamic, but not as extreme. Smooth vocals are on top of it all and the songs capture a simple hook well enough, but are played by all three guys with a plan of attack where they are comfortable putting their original music phrasing into the basic structure. In other words, this stuff rocks. They remind me a bit of Squirrel Bait with their sense of melody and originality they expressed in their all too brief time together. I hope people check this band out and listen closely for the excellent qualities they sneak into their songs.

Mercies - This is my third time for this trio. They sound stronger than ever (well, at least after a false start they pushed through easily enough). I have always enjoyed their slightly askew take on indie rock and they seem to have an even stronger personal touch to their music making a simple definition difficult. The songs are interesting with plenty of instrumental flourish. The drumbeats have an interesting complexity to them allowing the bass and guitar to roam around a bit while keeping the rhythm throughout. Vocals are again interesting with two voices working together frequently in fun ways that move beyond one voice on verse and two voices on chorus. On the downside, the sound was a bit murky at times and a broken string caused a short delay allowing audience members to tell bad jokes. Where is Roy Harper or Robyn Hitchcock when you need them? The crowd swelled to 35-45 people at any one time and they pushed for an encore which was well delivered despite the band's fingers crossed hopes on getting through it. If you have not seen this band, do so. I always hope to see 10 more people at every show I attend for the local bands that can deliver quality sets like this. And both these bands tonight showed the ability to move up to larger audiences.

Quote of the Night: Well, this is actually from a while ago at an English Premier League website...

We really quite badly wanted Miralem Pjanic to sign for Spurs (or anyone in our nation's capital really), just so we could use the headline 'Pjanic on the streets of London.'

Midnight Hike - Taylor Carson - Rew Smith - Bethany and the Guitar - Jason Masi -- 9:30 Club - Aug 5 2011

Jason Masi - Kudos to the 9:30 Club for opening its doors to a mostly area band showcase event featuring five youngish bands on a prime Friday night in summer. Up first is singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist (from the band Jubeus) accompanied by electric guitar, bass and drums. The music is palatable steady rock music on the lighter side with the focus on the song. Thankfully, the liquid lead guitar runs moved it into interesting territory. There is a lifetime of this type of music out there, so the arrangements really help a lot. Not bad at all, and a worthy opener that some of the latecomers to this early starting show unfortunately missed.


Bethany and the Guitar - Bethany plays acoustic guitar and sings lead. She has a rhythm section and a versatile acoustic guitar/keyboardist/back-up singer helping out. The second cut had a really nice 'pop' to it and moved it forward from the comforts of alt country/folk. The guitar strumming was quick and countered the more languid vocals well. Again, when you are mining familiar terrain, you do need to dig deeper into your spice rack and find ways to layer the sounds/flavors in slightly unique ways that are still familiar. This band mostly succeeds at this, although the cover song they did was more bland than I expected. And it takes some kind of guts or naivete to name an original song "Summertime", but with the profits of this song going to a worthy charity, I will stay clear of pithy comments. I sensed the crowd enjoyed this set of accessible, heartfelt songs as much as anything tonight.

Rew Smith - The most electric set thus far with two electric guitars and the rhythm section. Plenty of vocals, as well, although I rather preferred a few of their instrumental passages where they rocked out a bit. They kept the pace at a moderate rocking level and played feel-good pop-rock that played it a bit too safe for my liking. It is comfortable for some, but I was reminded of my high school days where I had a choice between Rush or REO Speedwagon. I think most of my readers can guess which path I took. And thanks to the guy wearing a Rush 1st album cover t-shirt tonight to help with this analogy.

Taylor Carson - The fourth straight two-guitar and rhythm section line-up to hit the stage. The crowd is at its peak for the night and it was nice to see more people than open space downstairs with some overflow up with me in the balcony. This may be the most Americana folk rock singer/songwriter set of the night. It is assured with solid songs and vocals, assisted with some thoughtful slide work and lead moves that go for color and not histrionics. They have 'the best looking PhD on drum' apparently. Hmmm... Vic Bondi and Greg Graffin were front men, and not terribly good looking (especially Bondi). What about Lucky Lehrer, original drummer from the Circle Jerks? No, he was a law school grad. Same for Dead Meadow's drummer. OK, I accept that statement. Anyway, after I blanked out for a song while pondering this, I quickly absorbed myself in the quality songs they performed. Very catchy stuff and plenty of potential for nice things.

Midnight Hike - I have reviewed and enjoyed this band's initial album and was looking forward to seeing what they could do live. They had plenty of sound as a keyboardist started the show for a bit before the drummer joined him. Then the two guitars, bass and lead vocalist joined in for the full sonic thrust. The catchy songs are present and they play their brand of rock music that is a tad more classic than indie and incorporates some R&B at times. The band was playing well and had plenty of energy, yet there was something about the set that was dogging me. Although the sound was clear, I finally felt that the guitars were a bit too compressed. The rhythm guitar was not even audible enough much of the time. I think it may be as much how the guitars are set on stage as opposed to what the soundman was doing. Hard to tell and this may be my personal preference more than a mistake on the band/soundman's part (and this huge PA can throw some bands off). But I hope that they open it up more and let the guitars breathe and snarl a bit more in future. When they went to two or three guys on drums/percussion, they snarled plenty. But the band still showed a lot of skill the way they played with each other. There is good musical camaraderie and songs that pull the audience in. They will be interesting to see again in 6-12 months.

Quote of the Night: "This/That song is/was on our CD, available in the back for $____."  I must have heard this 17 times by now, half way through the third set. Amusingly enough just after I wrote this down, the next quote was "This one's on our CD... for the fourth time". Thanks to the last two bands for barely mentioning this.

And a free tip for all bands, especially younger ones. Go see Robyn Hitchcock to see stage patter as good as the music (even better at times, which is no knock on his excellent music). Even if your best couple of lines match his worst, you will be doing great. Don't shoot for his levels right away, but see the opportunities available.

Cold Cave - Austra -- Rock'n'Roll Hotel - Aug 4 2011

Austra - This band proves why I am open to enjoying electronica bands. This Toronto collective lines up three female vocalists in front of electronics, bass, and drums. The ratio of vocalists is what makes this work so well for me. The interplay is excellent. One vocalist handles most of the leads, but the back-up singers punch in nicely and add a touch of percussion. One song had three distinct vocal parts where there was mostly a weaving of any two of them occurring at any give time before the final merging of all three. Quite creative songwriting at work here. The electronics were solid with the bass and drums laying down a nice steady rocking beat. I did miss a guitar, as the style of the late John McGeoch (Banshees, Magazine) would be very welcome in this band. I also missed the opening number as my cat needed some extra lap time and the line to get in was surprisingly long tonight. But everything I heard was easy to get into. The nearly packed house agreed with me and this is a band destined for bigger things.

Cold Cave - This band proves why I generally do not enjoy electronica bands. They had a drummer, one guy on electonics and a third on vocals and some electronics. They started out rather noisily, but quickly settled into a more dancey song structure. The beats were not overwhelming and to my liking they strived more for presenting full songs. A couple songs had some nice punch to them, but mostly the vocals kind of let me down and the instrumentation didn't bring it up enough. The people up front were dancing, but I am guessing most of the back half of the crowd may have agreed with me in preferring the opening band. If the singer brought more than the cliched strains of Ric Ocasek/Peter Murphy, it may have worked better for me. Not bad, but at best I am back on the fence regarding electronica.

Quote of the Night: From the singer of Cold Cave... "This song is about how much I hate David Byrne." Really? I was doing everything I could to NOT compare your voice to David Byrne's. Did he steal your ideas?

Thee Lolitas - The Frustrations -- Velvet Lounge - Aug 3 2011

Thee Lolitas - Low down, stripped down, and raucous. This duo featured grind it out guitar chords, intense vocals, and frantic drumming. That is all. It is not only post-Ramones, but post-Lazy Cowgirls as well, and just a bit more intense. It does not go over the top, however, as the songs are clear enough. But the riff and power-beat are the kings. A drumstick splintered in half during the first song was about all the symbolism I needed to match the visual with what I heard. The songs are decent, with room for improvement like most bands, but were satisfactory for a good opening set like this one. They sounded a bit like sped-up mid-level Johnny Thunders songs with more of Syl Sylvain guitar style. Nice finish where the drummer took his little used high-hats to the back of the club while someone else from the crowd jumped up on drums. The drummer returned to play the one cymbal and the finished off this fun, energetic set. I always have room for bands like this on a night out in a rock club.

 

The Frustrations - A Detroit trio closes out tonight's festivities. Lots of really good rocking sounds from Detroit, so I am hopeful. The guitarist handles the vocal work with the drummer adding some back-up. This is rather tricky music as the first song is a bit hard to read with its blend of punk, pop and shoegaze amidst an up-tempo beat. The second song really yanked me into their sound as it exploded all over the place with post punk screams, A Jah Wobble-like bass and psychedelic freak-out close. My notes on the third song say 'also twisted and way cool'. They even shared a bit of the sound of a powerhouse Detroit trio known as Paik, although the Frustrations were a bit quirkier and less consistent. No matter, as they still offered all the twists and turns of a good mystery novel without losing the plot. A shame there were only about ten people tonight with four of us (two from the opening band) present to hear the final notes. There are plenty of good things happening in the smaller clubs, people. Let your hair down and lose an hour's sleep for work the next day. You can do it!

Quote of the Night: From the guitarist of the opener... "I was in the wrong key". The drummer just laughed and since the guitarist was singing, he was only screwing himself up or creating an atonal masterpiece.

RECORD REVIEWS - July 2011

Bottle Rocket "Petrichor"


This is a project comprised of Brooklyn solo artist Angel Ocana and Philadelphia band, Disco Machine Gun, front man Michael Roberts. Their combined talents lead to this interesting six-song ep. They play with mostly modern forms here. Indie Rock is the starting point, although there is that sharper modern edge to it, with quirky quieter moments alternating with the more rocking passages. I hear a little bit of Adam Franklin's quiet psychedelic tinged music influencing the first cut. But things get a little more mystifying in mostly a good way thereafter. There is a distinct shoegaze feel with good steady shimmering backing sometimes leading to a more driving variation. The singing is quite good and is the fulcrum to the songs. The sound quality is nice throughout with enough guitar dynamics to interest a diverse amount of listeners, provided they have at least one adventurous bone in their body.

Songs to try out...

November - Powerful lush pop-rock shoegaze song. So easy to grab on to, it could qualify for a hit single if it got the break-out. I will play this over and over.

When the Leaves Turn Over - Sebadoh meets Fugazi style rock.

Petrichor - A little more of the Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) style.

Mittenfields "The Fresh Sum ep"

I don't feel any conflicting emotions going on in my head when I try to figure out what category to place this in. It is shoegaze and then some. But every label requires more detail... The opener, "Mixed Signals" roars away with waves of guitar sound. Intense, emotional, loud... all the good things that good shoegaze music provides are present here. It was also nice to see some varied tempos and volumes along with some instrumental twists as the five-song ep continued. I particularly liked the wah-wah guitar sneaking its way into the mix on "My Mind is an Avalanche". It mixes in with quiet moments before making way for a nice wild ride toward the finish. This was my favorite of this short set. For better or worse, the ep started to settle in a little too comfortably for a bit until the "bonus cut" "Swim in a Tight Parallel" brought it back up a notch. Most any shoegaze fan or loud rock music lover will enjoy this release. There are examples of excellent songwriting here and even the lesser material sounds like it would be a kick in the brain on stage.

And that theory can be tested out on Monday, August 8th at the Black Cat where Mittenfields will play with two other bands for the a measly eight dollars. I will be there, so should you.

The Blackberry Belles - Ugly - Spoonboy & the Papas -- Black Cat - July 29 2011

Spoonboy & the Papas - I had intended to be at the Red Palace tonight with a late run to the Black Cat. However, insane Friday night traffic forced me into Plan B. So it was off to the Black Cat a little early tonight. Unfortunately, it was a little late of the opening set which started right on time. I was able to catch the last three songs by this band and liked what I heard. They did sort of a sea shanty combined with melodic punk on one song. The other two were nice melodic pop-punk songs. A good sound, pretty tight, and a band I will try to see again when I can.


Ugly - Hmmmm... The first song reminds me of the pop of April Wine mixed with the heaviness of Moxy with an occasional twist of Max Webster. There, that's a reference to three 1970s Canadian bands that few people have heard of. Fortunately (or not), this band quickly moved into other sonic territory forcing me to open my mind further. They had a nice mixture of light and heavy that was more extreme than other times I may say that. And after a 41-minute set, this was a bit too much actually. What happened for me was that the louder moments promised a lot. But by set's end, the quieter moments were winning out and it did not quite work as well--perhaps considering this Friday night show. I did like some of the keyboards work and the Crazy Horse style rock that snuck in on a song or two. While I did not sense a cohesive vision at work tonight, there are some cool things going on. These guys are on my list of bands to monitor for future growth.

The Blackberry Belles - This is the CD release show. I have already favorably reviewed the CD as well as favorably reviewed the band's live show and gave space for an interview with two of the three members of this local band. So at the risk of overkill, here's another review of the Blackberry Belles. The band did yet another fine job of presented their modern take on 60s garage/pop/soul rock'n'roll. I enjoyed seeing them on the big stage at the Black Cat and the Friday night summer crowd was big enough to justify having this all-local show up here. The sound was great right from the first note and stayed that way throughout. Everything blended together well and the band had its usual energy bringing out an extra pop in their songs. So it was a good show tonight by a band you should and will be hearing from for some time around here I think.

Girls’ Rock Camp (ATL)

Quote of the Night: "Ladies and Gentlemen, girls rock" from our headliners as they featured their wildly talented female drummer. I wanted to point this out as tonight was also a benefit for Girls Rock, a good looking organization that hopefully will continue to prosper.

Interview with The Blackberry Belles -- Part Two

Part Two:  Interview with Tony and Jesse, 2/3 of the Blackberry Belles.


And don't forget, Friday, July 29th--see the band at the Black Cat and buy their CD!

DH  I am curious of your opinion on this. I have an (ongoing) argument with a friend where he says a live show should have the band featuring new and unique arrangements. That may work for Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen, but then I counter with the Ramones or the Stooges where you don't want unique. How do you feel about that with your music, do you like to play with it?

J  We will mess around with at practice. You know, jokingly play songs differently and joke around that we will play it that way at a show, but we end up playing it the way we have it. Some of the songs have changed a lot...

DH  Since you thought you had them done (laughter)

J  Yeah, we've gotten to the point now where we're comfortable with each other and comfortable with the songs we have--definitely the songs on the album, to where it would take a lot of time... Some of this would take so much time since we don't have the time to rehearse often enough. We could spend our time rearranging the songs we have or spend time trying to write new stuff so we don't play the same songs at the show. So we've really been trying to focus on that, but a lot of times we can only get together once a week for a couple of hours.

T  But I feel like our material has the ability to change, you know, like on stage if something happens and if like I miss cue... there are times where I change songs, not completely, but I'll stop playing what I would be playing they are carrying the songs. Like they will always react. They are always right there like they know what's going on.

DH  Yeah.

J  Or it's a horrible train wreck. It's one or the other. (laughter)

T  I don't think we've had any train wrecks on stage.

J  Not lately.

DH  I can sense that it could go either way. It seems like there is a nice feeling among the three of you that you can play around with it. But also when you are kind of new, unless you are destined to be the new Phish, you don't want to go hog wild improv...

T  Yeah, we show some serious restraint.

DH  I sense some of your musical influences date back to before you were born.

T  Yeah, definitely.

DH  How do you discover that era through each of your musical journeys. I am always curious about that with younger people.

T  Well you know, I grew up on hip-hop and then I met some friends who were in to death metal. Like I skipped right over Metallica and went to Obituary and Deicide. And then grunge hit and then I don't know how many copies of Jane's Addiction albums I've worn out. Or Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers... and then when I started playing guitar and getting into old blues guys, I was digging back. But I never really got to the garage thing until uh... You know, like the White Stripes hit and the Black Keys hit and I listened to that and thought that was really cool. And then when I joined the Breakups, Ted from the Breakups just started feeding me all this old garage rock and they were listening to same blues stuff I was listening to like Buddy Guy and whatnot. It's like I am right there with those guys. I'm not trying to put myself on their level, but I'm feeling the same things they are feeling, so I'm digging deeper into that. Oh, and then also Prince. Yeah, he's one of the bigger influences on my musical upbringing.

DH  And how about you?

J  Well, I started in a similar place I guess. I was really into hard rock. My younger childhood friends and older brothers got me into metal. So I grew up on Metallica, Pantera, Guns'n'Roses and all that kind of stuff. I lived in that scene for a number of years until I got towards the end of high school and my taste kind of mellowed out and I started listening to more classic rock kind of stuff ore even jam band stuff. Kind of in and out of that and I've sort of stopped looking for music for a long time and sort of take things that were handed to me. So I can't say that I have a lot of garage rock influence or anything like that. I am kind of a lazy music listener and have listened to a lot of the same stuff for a long time. But it's kind of all over the place.

DH  That is interesting because when you are in a band, especially when you write, because if you are kind of scholarly and hearing every chord progression known to man, you can feel like 'this sounds good, where am I stealing it from?'

T  I wait for other people to tell me where I'm stealing it from. (laughter) It's like this sounds great, and I hope that person doesn't sue me. But if I play something at home and say I obviously know what that is, I'm not going to do that.

DH  But if they sued you, that would be a good sign, then it would show you would have enough money to warrant it. (laughter)  So how do you play the bass parts--what do you do with your keyboard?

J  The Fender Rhodes that I play, I rewired the insides of it to maintain the internal tremolo and EQ and its like a guitar, it's got pickups and you plug a cable in and out to it, but now it is split so two octaves come out into a bass amp. I struggled for a long time to find the right combination of stuff. I tried different effects and things without rewiring, but I really wanted to isolate the two sections from each other because when you play it in this way, I want the bass to sit way up higher in the mix than the upper register of the piano and have that punch. And that was missing until I finally just cut the pickups into two sections. So now it's like two little pianos. The top half goes to an old Silvertone Sears guitar amp that kind of fell into my lap with the bottom going into a bass amp.

DH  Yeah, Ray Manzarek of the Doors had to do the same thing, but he had that separate little bass thing...

J  Yeah, I would love to have the Hammond on stage with me, too, but I don't think my arms are long enough to reach over there. The organ I use is just a Roland/Hammond clone which I run into a Leslie cabinet which gives it a nice growl.

DH  Ah yes, it has that Leslie swirling thing.

T  And you have to carry it....

J  Yeah, although in smaller places with a bunch of bands, I'm kind of a pain in the ass to deal with because they have to have four mics to set up and I'm bringing in a mixer and doing the mix myself, the bass and everything else.

DH  They think they are getting off light with a trio.

J  Well, I take it easy on them.

T  We set up a wall of amps and they are all his. (laughter) I've got this one amp and his are like he's Ted Nugent. And I still get told to turn down. The soundman goes turn down and you've got to be kidding me.

J  I can't argue if you call me a masochist (laughter)

DH OK, so the Black Cat show is for your CD release which I've reviewed and enjoyed. You've put this out yourself, right? No label?

T/J   Right.

DH  Which is the way it goes these days a lot. How are you trying to make it available? -- after this CD release show of course.

J  We are open to suggestions. I've never done it this way before. Some of the online tools now available for bands for cheap or free are pretty incredible. We use Bandcamp which some of the folks we knew were using. So we started investigating different options. And that's a good one. It's a got a good interface and gives you some options of design and how you want to display your stuff and how you want to sell it which is great. You can let people name their own price, you can name a minimum price, they can pay more if they want to, they can download songs individually.

DH  Right.

J  But they are linked in to several other places. I guess in the end we need to use all the online tools that we can and just try to push the CDs to the people we talk to and at shows. I'm not really sure what labels do for bands anymore. Not that I don't think they do anything, but I  haven't talked to anyone in depth about how it works with some of the DC labels that a lot of really great bands are on. Like what actually is happening there. Are they getting money fronted for the recording or?

DH  That's a good question and something I want to learn more from talking to more of you guys starting at different levels. I mean it is one thing if Subpop signs you, but it does seem like there is the rise of the publicist now. I have friends who do that and now more bands are skipping labels, doing recording themselves, then the road...  Anyway, I am glad Bandcamp is going well. That seems to be good place with what I've seen.

J  It's really easy to use and they manage your... the cut they take from your sales is pretty minimal and they are not involved with making you charge if don't want to charge. You can use it for free and give all your stuff away. If you do charge, they handle all of it--you set up your Paypal account or whatever and funnels it to you.

DH  So you can give it away for free and they don't charge you?

J  Up to a point. I think if you were using up a lot of their bandwidth, you know, they are going to need something I guess. It's cool to because you can use it to search for music. We'll look at our stats there and find that people came across our tunes within Bandcamp, looking at something else. They categorize it, so it's a little community...

--(we continued on this theme for a bit)--

And after discussing clubs, mini-tours and how good there drummer is (she is very good), we called it a day. I am thankful that this band is as enjoyable to hang out with as they are when listened to live or on the new CD. Do check them out at the Black Cat and hopefully many more shows down the road.

The Ambulars - Cigarette - Cloud Becomes Your Hand -- Black Cat - July 27 2011

Cloud Becomes Your Hand - What intended to be a review of Tim Robbins at the Birchmere instead becomes a review of the show at Black Cat's Backstage. But since I needed to turn off my air conditionrt to assist water repairs for the evening, I needed to do a later night show (I'll spare you the full details). So I get to see one of the countless Brooklyn bands starting out tonight's festivities. They line up with drums, violin, guitar/vocals and a couple of guys on keyboards/electronics that also break out percussion and ukuleles. Immediately an experimental music genre looks like the easy label to apply. But with that, there is always a need to explain further. The music had a nice drive to it with some interesting vocal chants ceding way to longer instrumental rhythms and icy violin runs. Lots of variety thereafter with some ripping guitar moves and prog moves. There was even an O'Death syle Americana/rock stomper with power chords from guitar and ukulele amidst cute electronica twitches. They closed with something reminding me of King Crimson's "Lizard". This was a tight, fun 30 minute set that worked its magic on me and the growing crowd. I recommend this band to any open minded music fan and will be back at their next show.

Cigarette - And yet another poorly named band that I don't immediately spot on my internet search. And since I have other things to do, I will get to the music. There are seven people on stage although that changes from song to song moving to a low of four. I think one person was out there for only one song. Lots of instrument switching as well, which I am not sure was really needed from a listener's point of view, but probably had to do with who wrote or sings the song or whatever. The resulting music was much smoother than the stage moves fortunately. The band had a light droning dreamy groove going the whole set. Delicate vocals toward shoegaze, but never too heavy. This was not always compelling, but was effective.

The Ambulars - I won the bet with myself. During the previous two sets, there were a couple of guys carrying on long winded conversations while the bands were playing. I bet myself that at least one of them was in this band. And one of them was. I realize that you are visiting friends, but there is a backstage for that if you really need to talk. Obviously if you are in the back of a club, you are not bothering the band, but you do bother listeners like me, who have to get up and move to a new location. That said, I will clear the slate and see what this band can deliver. I liked the simple immediate loud guitar-bass-drums-vocals delivery of tuneful pop-punk music. The drumming in particular had enough muscularity to push out at the listeners. The songs were pretty catchy for the most part. Buzzcocks-like, but not at that level of complexity and flexibility. I did note that the endings were a bit sloppy and not thought out. Tightening needed. Also, the band cried out "Everything's wrong" after a few songs when tuning went awry. There were some feedback issues too and I think they lost quite a bit of momentum. Still, there's hope if they learn to handle tough conditions and tighten their songs up.

Quote of the Night: From the openers... "We were in the James River today. Oh Boy--it is the warmest river I've ever been in."

Adrian Hardkor & the Bad Decisions - The And Company - Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles - DC9 - July 26 2011

Lucy Michelle & the Velvet Lapelles - From Minneapolis, this versatile five-piece band comes to our fair city. They have drums and cello that stay pretty steady, but electric and acoustic guitars and basses mix in with accordions, glockenspiels, ukuleles and added percussion in many combinations. A female voice is on top of it all and unfortunately the voice was a bit shrill atop some muddy lows early on in the set. Fortunately the soundman righted things and the band's sound came together much better. The sound was likable enough with its Americana leanings. As the set wore on, the driving quality of the music was pulling me in nicely. The band has more going on than initially meets the ear. There is a more worldly quality than I first suspected. Ok, the Gogol Bordello-like gypsy stomper they did was rather obvious, but I could detect it in other songs, too. I am glad they decided to bring their kids along and bring their music to the east coast. Based on the audience response, there are some Lapelles fans to be won out east.

The And Company - This Massachusetts trio lost the awards for longest band name and largest group tonight, but they made up for that by delivering one of the more creative sets I have seen this month. The one constant was a keyboard/vocalist. The drummer added lead vocals and a bit of acoustic guitar while the third member also added vocals, acoustic guitar, some keyboards and percussion. They even set up a xylophone and brought out an accordion for one song. The songs were even more varied than the underlying instruments. The first few songs had a playful experimental pop quality to it not unlike a Philly band I like called Kelly and the Ruths. They came back to earth a bit for some of their songs and settled more into folk and folk-rock idioms. In fact, the acoustic guitar led songs were the weakest of the set. They were decent and may help give a bit of variety, but the keyboard led numbers really shined brightest. Vocal work also was of high quality as well. Both the songs and arrangements were clever. The modest crowd obviously agreed as they sounded about three times as loud as their actual numbers. It has been two years since a previous tour? I hope I don't have to wait that long for the next DC show.

Adrian Hardkor & the Bad Decisions - Adrian Hardkor is on acoustic guitar and vocals. His "bad decisions" led to being accompanied by an electric guitar, a bass and a violin (part of the time). They did a nice job rushing up on stage to get started ten minutes after the previous band as it was 11pm. You see people, there is a reason why I carp on the Velvet Lounge and DC9 to get their butts moving and get these shows started on time. It really is not fun watching people leaving the club during the final band's set. And at times I am joining them. Fortunately those that stayed, kept the hyper-enthusiasm going for this band's set. It was decent Americana-folk, although honestly I did not see enough in the arrangements to make me excited enough to want to go out of my way for this band. There is a kernel of good song writing here, so we will see what develops. I really missed the violinist when she left the stage. Perhaps the twangy country touches turned me off a bit. There is some talent here, so time will tell, I suppose.

Rant of the Night: I don't know how to say this delicately, but frankly I don't give a rat's ass about Amy Winehouse. Never did. I sometimes get "accused" of writing up a lot of positive reviews. Part of the reason is that I choose the shows I go to and don't get sent to see pompous, over-rated, over-priced major acts like Amy Winehouse. Even if the acts are not pompous, the press coverage is. I am never bothered when Husker Du, Sonic Youth or Nirvana go to big labels and on to arenas (well, not Husker Du) and there are plenty of huge, huge acts I respect, but I really wish more fans of celebrities would become fans of music, film or theater or whatever.

And if you want to discuss celebrity deaths, I will leave this column with a more positive obituary. GD Spradlin died recently at age 90. He is not a well-known name, but you've seen him in movies and will remember his richly unique southern accent if you take a look at his filmography. He was a very normal human being who led a full life and never entered Rehab or had any need.

Interview with The Blackberry Belles

DC's own Blackberry Belles have increasingly put on excellent live shows at many clubs and venues in the past year. They have now released their first record (reviewed favorably here a month back) and celebrate with a CD-release party this Friday night at the Black Cat. I hope the attendance is good and most any rock fan should not be disappointed with this band in any way. But come on out and judge for yourself.  Here is a part one of an interview I had with two of the Belles conducted this past Sunday...




Interview with Tony and Jesse, 2/3 of the Blackberry Belles.

David Hintz:  The Blackberry Belles, have a been around a year is it?

Tony (guitar/vocals):  A little over a year.

DH  OK, and three members all in the DC area?

T  Yeah

DH  And did you all grow up in the DC area or where in the country?

Jesse (keyboards):  I was born in DC but grew up in Northern Virginia. My folks are from Texas, moved up here in the 70s, bounced around for a while, had me in the city then moved out to Burke, in a little log cabin.

DH  That's interesting. I lived on a mountain in Colorado for 18 years, but it was a comfortable house, not a log cabin... 30 miles west of Denver was all.

T  And I grew up in Xenia, Ohio

DH  And me from Kettering (we spoke earlier about the Xenia tornado and other things as these are both cities around Dayton, Ohio).

T  And I've been out here since I want to say 2003.

DH  And your drummer (Alison), where is she from?

T  She is... where is she from?

J  She is from here and California. I think she spent most of her childhood out in Cali... Her family was military, so she bounced around, ended up back here.

DH  Yeah, all us Federals end up back here.

T  They knew each other quite a while...

J   Yeah, Allie and I were in a band shortly after high school. She was the original drummer for a band, The Ordinary Way, which was a band I played in from 1999 to 2006 and so right when I joined up, she had left, so we got another drummer. But she would periodically come back and we would do shows together and sometimes we would have two drummers or she would play percussion. We got to know each other pretty well.

DH  Yes, and you Tony are in another band right now.

T  Yes.

DH  And are you, Jesse, in any other side projects right now?

J  Not really, little things here and there.

DH  But you are in a band now...

T  Yeah, I am in the Courtesans right now.

DH  Yeah, the Courtesans have been around a while...

T  Yeah, actually the Courtesans started... actually, I was in Supercade with the bass player from the Courtesans, and then drummers and singers kind of came and went and then one day, we were like ok, it's time we just sing. It doesn't matter if we can't. We just need to do it. And then at that point, we just became the Courtesans. And I was in another band at that time as well. And when that band broke up, I started to look to put together this band.

DH  Right, so you were active interested and I was kind of curious about this. Because it does seem so different now. You did not hear about this 30 years ago as much--people being in two bands, but now it is so common. So is the goal to do something different? Because your bands are different, although they could play on the same bill.

T  Yeah it was weird because I think when I was in Supercade or right after we became the Courtesans and we were trying to find our way, everybody was in another band except for me. (laughter) Well it was kind of like I have lots of time on my hands. I want to be in another band. So I started answering Craig's List ads and I got into a band that was doing garage rock, you know 60s garage rock, the Break-ups, so once the Break-ups broke up, I wanted to keep doing this kind of music and at that time, it didn't translate to what the Courtesans were trying to do. So I did not want to have this huge hodgepodge of different sounds and I wanted to focus more on this (Blackberry Belles).

DH  That makes sense. I find it interesting as I try to think back. We had "fuck bands" which would be (multi-band) combos that went out and do one show, but now big bands, huge, I mean Jack White or whoever with all kinds of things going on... But how about the writing? How does this band write and who do you choose when you are in two bands what your focus is?

T  A lot of the times I just know when I'm writing. It's like this is definitely a Belles song or a Courtesans song and there have been songs I have demo'ed to one band and they're like 'ehhh' so I play it to the other band. The song writing for the most part is that I'll have the skeleton of a song--sometimes I'll have verse, chorus, bridge, you know all that stuff and lyrics, and then I'll come in and everything will get switched around and parts will change and everybody is influential on the creative process. And on some songs like the end of "Listen baby", we were going to do a third verse and (Jesse) said why don't we do something different and he just started playing something and he came up with the end of "Listen Baby" and I had to find something that would fit lyrically at the end of that and it worked out really well.

DH  Yeah, that's good. I want to point out here that you are a three-piece with no bass. Keyboards, guitar and drums. And I think you guys, especially the two of you do really well with the arranging. It does sound full and uh, if you do work creatively on putting things together, it doesn't matter how simple it is underneath as opposed to lining up like the Marshall Tucker Band with three guitars.

T  Everything I am doing is extremely simple because I've got to play and sing.

DH  Yes!

T My approach is I'm going to play as little as possible. I'm going to get away with smoke and mirrors and it works out.

DH  Right. And how was your Fort Reno show?

T  It was great!

J  We had a really good time. We were worried about the weather. It was hot, but clouds kind of rolled in and threatened with storming but held off. Yeah, it was great. There were a lot of families there which was cool--kids dancing and stuff. I've only been to one show there before and it was so long ago, I don't really remember it--who was playing. But it was a good experience.

DH  Yeah, it looked like it when I wrote the review of the one I attended. It's really not for me, but it's a really cool thing because there are so many young people there exposed to it...

J  Surprisingly the sound is good there. The PA does not look like much. The stage sound is really good.  It's the same guy that's been running it for a while, doing the sound. And someone does the booking. But they have it together.

DH  You guys do pretty well, at least I think, in playing just about every club here--short of the 9:30 Club or have you played there?

T  We have Not played the 9:30 Club.

J  There's a lot of little places that we haven't played...

DH  Smaller clubs...

T  We got really lucky with the Black Cat and the Rock'n'Roll Hotel. They pretty much got behind us right out of the gate. They were just giving us main stage shows and we were bringing nobody since no one knew who we were. And they would turn around and give us another show. I have never understood it. We love (the Black Cat). And the same thing with the Rock'n'Roll Hotel. I hustle to try to get that place filled up, get different bands to play on the bill, different organizations to come in, you know, to try to get some more people in there with us. And they have just believed in us from the start and we are lucky to have both of those clubs.

DH  With most of your shows as headliner, are you arranging the opening bands?

T  A lot of the time we are. I mean, it seems like they trust us to put together a bill.

J  I don't know, maybe it's like half and half. We did a Mondo Topless show...

T  Well that was not ours.

J  And the Billy Woodward and the Senders show.

T  The first one wasn't ours, the second one was.  I put that one together with Billy Woodward. He helped us on that one. He got the Dirty Names in on that one. And then it was us and the Dupont Circles on the bill.

DH  It's important to get bands you like and something sympathetic, too...

T  Yeah.

DH  But also the clubs would want them to bring their own fans, so is that something you would consider? It's hard to know...

J  Well, you learn as you go, I guess. It's hard and I think most bands understand. As we we were when we started, we were not really capable of bringing a crowd that's gonna make the club very happy. You know they need to break even and everyone's kind of aware that there's a line in there where everyone's going to either lose or make money and if you're not going to get them up to the line, then they'll need to look for someone else. Nothing against the bands. So, we've been on some shows where there were some bands that should not have been on for that reason. But there's out of town bands where it's tough. It's really up to the club in the end to allow the show to happen, once they see what's going on. They approve it, see that it's a good idea.

DH How do payouts work? Do bands have to get involved?

T  Some times the bands have to get involved. Some times the clubs depending where you play. I can't name names.

DH  That's fine.

T  Like we'll play shows where there will be an opening band that didn't bring anybody and some of these clubs poll at the door to see how many people you bring and then we'll just say 'whatever, split the money three ways'.

J  If they're from out of town or something, like the Velvet Lounge or something, there's not really a huge take at the end of the night. So if a band drove two hours to get there, at least give them the gas money. It's not like we had to work that hard...

T  I'm pretty sure we've just given up our money, especially like when they come over at the end of the night with like $13. For three bands, I mean like what's going on here? (laughs) I mean you give it to the guy that needs it. I'm going to just drive home.

DH  Yeah, I used to book shows and just give the money to bands and watch them fight... (more discussion) And now to segue into this. You have your CD show coming up this Friday night (at the Black Cat)... and I'm double booked that night, but I will make it by for your set.

Part 2 to come when I can devote time for transcription....

Swirlies - Psychedelic Horseshit - Wild Fruit -- Rock'n'Roll Hotel - July 22 2011

Wild Fruit - A rock trio is this with loose, jangly, grinding guitar and bass atop snappy drumming. This is a good modern take on garage music with a nod to the 60s, but with extra doses of modern punk attitude and a DIY approach. Raw Australian punk, Cub Koda, lots of interesting lesser known acts were dancing around in my mind while listening to this set. While they did not set the joint afire, they rocked the crowd and gave me enough to think about until next time...

Psychedelic Horseshit - Unfortunately, a bit more of the latter and not enough of the former. A couple of guys made noise on guitars amidst a whirl of electronica, drum machines and maybe a touch of keyboard. The most interesting part was the lyrics with lines like "Every time I'm standing next to you, I want to throw up". There was low-key fun here and formal musicianship was not the goal. I hope they keep working at things. I think there heart is in the right place, but a little more needs to be done to bring this up a notch or two.

Swirlies - The five members of this long running band came from various corners of the world to convene to play a couple of shows. So tight edgy new songs to promote was not exactly the purpose here tonight (in fact there was joking about playing songs from their "new album"). Instead, it was a few musicians getting together to bang out some great indie, shoegaze, edgy rock music from their 21 year history. I do detect Dinosaur Jr. in style, but instead of powering into loud guitar brilliance, they move more toward a shoegaze based Sonic Youth styled rock intensity. I also detect some Feelies, but the songs all vary nicely from moodier pieces to blistering melodic attacks (Yes, if only Jerry's Kids or Gang Green decided to push their creativity a bit). The drummer is quite strong and powerful. Bass and sometimes used keyboards thicken things out nicely while the two and sometimes three guitars do indeed swirl around in between the powerful attacks. The vocals are the most shoegazey sort of sounds with the female vocals in the direction of Kim Gordon and the male vocals nicely understated. I am glad I got this chance to finally see this fine under the radar band and it was nice to see a few serious fans present. The over half full club had a nice time and hopefully did not witness the Swirlies for the last time.

Quote of the Night: A surprise Big Boys comment from the openers... "We have this dedication to Biscuit of the Big Boys. He used to stay 'Start your own fucking band' so you all go out and start your own fucking band."

Kindlewood - Small Sur - Jonathan Vassar -- Bella - July 21 2011

Jonathan Vassar - It is hot outside--dangerously hot. The club is hot--uncomfortably hot. It is going to be a small turnout, but the musicians are willing and able to soldier on. Vassar left his band, The Speckled Bird, back in Richmond and plays a set of acoustic guitar, harmonica and singing. The guitar playing is pretty simple, but his delicate touch is decent and gives room for his vocals. His songs are in the melancholy camp for the most part. Some times it was  bit too consistently low-key, but that was best on a night like tonight.

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them. Juan Carlos will be asked to approve all tags before others can see them.

Small Sur - This three piece featured guitar/vocals, saxophone, and drums/backing vocals. The sound never felt right all set. The main problem was the lead microphone which seemed foggy. Perhaps the lead vocals were the issue, but I am guessing not. The instruments were pushing into feedback far too often as well. And this band played on the lighter side in sort of a Vetiver or Low Anthem manner (at least on the quieter side of those bands). I liked a couple of the songs including a nice long almost jamming sort of song. I will hope to see this band in better conditions next time.


Kindlewood - By now, I am melting into the furniture and I am afraid I have to miss this band. They are local, so hopefully there will be another time.

Quote of the Night: From Mr. Vassar (my NYTimes impersonation)... "If anyone's wondering about the scratch on my face, my cat used it as a launchpad yesterday." Even if I wasn't immediately sympathetic, I was later when my cat latched onto my leg scratching it to hell when he was mad about me going to bed. But these are minor inconveniences compared to this continuing heat wave. I am just happy the Swans are not in town (to explain, they played the Black Cat and requested the air conditioning be turned off).

Interview with Damon Tutunjian of the Swirlies

The Swirlies are playing the Rock'n'Roll Hotel this Friday night. They have been playing a fascinating brand of "loud, wall-of-noise/shoegaze guitar rock and twisted, lo-fi introspective pop.", to quote a fan. I was able to connect with Damon Tutunjian who helped found this band 21 years ago. Here is the interview and I hope we have a good crowd for what will be a rare chance to see this exciting band.

David Hintz (DH):  21 plus years... Why are you still here and what do you enjoy about playing out?

Damon Tutunjian (DJ):  Well, uh. heh-heh. Let's see that's a trick question.

DH  It is.

DT  I don't know. It would probably be more productive if we actually tried to do some new music I suppose, instead of playing out. But it is nice to play. We all like playing a little bit and we like our old songs. So it's nice to get together and play. At this point we mostly just do it for fun. This band is not trying to go anywhere, that's for sure. We all have careers or jobs or are playing in other bands. Sorry if that's a lame answer, but that's pretty much what it is all about. We are friends and getting to play a little music. I don't know.

DH  For bands that have been around, that makes sense. You also lead into a point I wanted to get to... Do you enjoy the creative process of writing new music and creating with your friends than playing live?

DT  Yeah, that's actually always been the attraction is writing songs and recording and producing. The things we are best at. We are not really a fantastic live band or anything like that. I think we make pretty good recordings and the studio trickery is more fun for me. So I hope we can do more of that at some point. The idea is to not really get anywhere with doing it, but the personal satisfaction of doing it.

DH  Right. What about when you were starting out? Personally I have known of of you guys more than I've known your music and I have now listened to quite a bit of it.

DT  Yeah, I've got the same issue.

DH  (Laughs) You guys started out at Taang records and at my age I started out buying all the early Taang Records.

DT  So did I.

DH  Was it challenging being kind of unique? I know that label kind of expanded to different directions but of course they were the hardcore kings in Boston which was such a tough, hardcore punk town. Was it difficult in the early days, both in releasing music in Taang and playing shows, booked with some odd bands?

DT  It was pretty strange, but Andy and I were really big into the old hardcore punk scene, so we were getting FUs and Gang Green Records, of course FUs weren't on Taang.

DH  Right

DT  You know, Gang Green. I like Mission of Burma a lot and they reissued some of their stuff. And of course kids like the Lemonheads and stuff so it was kind of thrill being on Taang. But we knew we were a weird choice. We liked playing with hardcore bands as we did some times, more than who we were supposed to play with. I don't know, to us it was always more fun to play on crazy bills. But I do think it was kind of hard for Taang to market us. I mean it didn't really work in the long wrong. I think we could have made a wiser choice if we wanted to do this for a living. But it certainly made it more interesting and less predictable I guess.

DH  And the people were good to work with their, too.

DT  Ahhhhh.... no. (Laughter) There was some fantastic people there early on who were very supportive. Then the label moved out to California. Wellll, we had a very bad contract. I'll say that. Know what I mean?

DH  Yes I do.

DT  Everything that could be in our favor was not in our favor.

DH  No, I sympathize. I really do. I used to manage bands and I have never understood...

DT  Who did you manage?

DH  I managed a band called Toxic Reasons

DT  Oh Toxic Reasons, yeah.

DH  Remember them? From Dayton Ohio, yeah.

DT  Yeah, yeah. I know Toxic Reasons.

DH  Yeah, ok. As a punk hardcore guy, you probably should. Just curious do you have any Gang Green/Chris Doherty stories?

DT  No, I never met those guys.

DH  Oh, ok. laughter. I met them a couple of times and I recall they started like three fights at the Jockey Club.

DT  I do know the guys in Slapshot. I knew Mark, the drummer.

DH  Oh, they just played here, but I missed them.

DT  We were both big Smiths fans. Maybe I shouldn't say that out loud. laughter

DH  That's ok. You gotta start somewhere, so

DT  Yeah.

DH  Does labelling bother you like from critics and such? I mean psychedelic is such a broad label while shoegaze and lo-fi I try to be careful when I use those terms. Does anything like that bother you or do you just let it slide by?

DT  Nah, I don't care. I don't think we're psychedelic. Some of our stuff could be old England shoegaze, but I don't know. I don't really like shoegaze music. I think it's all washed out and weak sounding. I like aggressive and I don't know, but our stuff is heavier and what's the word...

DH  Industrial was a word we used to use long ago.

DT  Yeah, I just think our stuff is heavier than most shoegaze.

DH  Yeah, that's why I hesitate using it because it has a precious quality to it that I don't like to use.

DT  Yeah, a lot of bands like My Bloody Valentine, but they all emulate this sort of this later washed out My Bloody Valentine and I was like, you know, You're Living All Over Me--Dinosaur Jr. is amazing--My Bloody Valentine... That's the kind of stuff that has the shoegaze edge I like. You know, the rougher stuff.

DH  Yep, you and I are a good fit there, then.

DT  What are you listening to? Punk, but are you kind of all over the map?

DH  I'm all over the map now at this point. I went from punk into psychedelic folk.

DT  Psychedelic folk, like what? Banhart?

DH  Yeah, well I collect the old stuff from like all over Europe and the world. I mean you start with the classic Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Steeleye Span (chuckles) and then you go into the Kong Lavring, Ougenweide... oh god, just tons and tons of bands. I saw Michael Chapman the other day. I mean, Roy Harper.

DT  I went on these, I like these blogs where they post these all these links to all this vinyl. I assume you get a lot of your stuff from that, right?

DH  Yeah, I do. But once you get on the collector's market, you get a lot, although I don't make as much money as I used to, so I don't buy as much.

DT  Yeah, I sold my records a long time ago. Now I buy music gear. (laughter)

DH  Yeah, of course. I have thousands of records anyway and I just can't always get to them... Robbie Basho is another name, and of course Comus is a classic. Have you ever heard Comus?

DT  No.

DH  Oh gosh, oh you'd love Comus.

DT  Yeah, I think I need to hear some of this stuff. Again, I did download some stuff off some sites. I moved to Sweden and I was looking for some old Swedish stuff. My parents-in-law, they have some really funny records like one that was put out by the government to promote social democracy and it's like, oh what is it called... It's really funny songs, you know songs about like sharing you food with poor people and stuff like that (laughter) oh, and another one by a band called Kebnekasje.

DH  Oh yes.

DT  Yeah, named after the tallest mountain in Sweden. It's like jam band, I don't know...

DH  They are hard to describe. Right, they are like a perfect band because I put them in my psyche folk section, but they are something...

DT  Yeah, what do you call that? Do you know Kebnekasje then?

DH  Yeah, um hmmmm.

DT  Oh ok, Yeah, my mother-in-law used to see them.

DH  That's great

DT  Yeah, there's like ten people in that band.

DH  Yeah, I've got like four or five records by them.

DT  Oh wow.

DH  Yeah, they did a lot. I'll try to burn you something as a little gift for your show maybe.

DT  Oh that would be really cool. Yeah, make me mix.

DH  I'll do that.  (after more discussion on my blog, that he did not meet Lou Giordano, etc.).

DT  Lou certainly produced and engineered a lot of things I liked. We never really met any of the real... I guess we did some things with Carl Clauster (spelling?) who worked on the drums. But we never worked with the Boston legendary producer folks. I know the guy who runs Q Division and I know a couple people from Fort Apache I suppose. Out here we're kind of left to our own devices.

DH  Yeah, one of my questions here was talking about your outsider status, so that was kind of what I was guessing which is both good and bad career-wise, maybe.

DT  Bad (laughter) but satisfying.

DH  But you're still here. One thing that is not so much a question but I noticed when I put you in my ITunes, you ended up right between Swell Maps and Syd Barrett, so I thought wow...

DT  That's interesting.

DH  Isn't it? I thought that was a great combination.

DT  It's quite nice and bizarre.

DH  Yeah, I don't know if I could do better describing you.

DT  Yeah, we are kind of in between there.

DH  They are part of your brethren anyway even if the sounds aren't quite alike.

DT  Yeah and I like Syd Barrett.

DH  So, just a few shows on this tour?

DT  Yeah, just a few sloppy shows. (laughter) . Yeah I live in another country and we're all spread over the east coast--kind of impossible and this was the most we could find time for. I hope we can record something.

And then we went on to talk about his life in Malmo, Sweden which was interesting to me, but maybe not so much here (plus transcribing interviews is such a time consuming pain, unlike bashing out my rambling reviews). But I appreciate Damon taking the time to chat before heading off to the airport. And I am hoping for more fun talk about music this Friday night.

Mother Mother - Dance for the Dying -- Red Palace - July 19 2011

Dance for the Dying - A local four-piece begins things off. They have guitar, bass and drums with a female singer who also plays some keys and percussion. In fact, the two axemen also play some keys as well. All of this makes sense as they have a strong dancey pop sound with plenty of energy. The songs start out a little in the Blondie/Bangles vein, but more toward their poppy songs and not the ones with more bite. Eventually a couple of songs with a little more guts entered the set which worked for me. Frankly, even the songs that did not work for me were well executed and supported by the good sized crowd (although a few of the usual "ringers" were responsible for some of this). Still, a good band that I will welcome easily enough on any given night, although not go out of my way for. If you like more mainstream, slick dance/pop rock sort of songs, then I would recommend going out of the way for this band. You will enjoy them.

Mother Mother - The club must be about 90% full for this Vancouver five-piece. I like the symmetry with two women on similar keyboards and backing vocals on each side of the stage. The guitarist/lead vocalist is in the middle with the drums and bass in the back. The bass player is allowed a trip downstage to play a saxophone solo on an instrument that looked about 150 years old. They establish a slick style quickly enough and although it may be a bit too much for me, the inventive songs and vocal arrangements keep my attention up. A nice cover of the Pixies "Gouge Away" helps things, although it mostly reminds me of how great a song it is as opposed to giving me any tricky new arrangement to hear. I think perhaps the guitarist looks just a little bit too much like Sting for my liking. Kind of creeping me out a bit as I do get a sense of Sting and the Police with this band's combination of edgy pop/rock and comfortable mainstream appeal. The switch to acoustic guitar lead to some nice style shifts into more straightforward indie rock terrain, so this band proved to me that they are talented enough to do a lot of interesting things. It would not surprise me or bother me too much if these guys really built themselves a large following. I am seeing it happen with another band I saw a while back, Fitz and the Tantrums. I liked Fitz better, but these are two bands to watch to see if they move upward in club size.

Quote of the Night: The crowd was roaring for Mother Mother and invited this response from the singer... "I love unbridled expressions of freedom." And the crowd bleated out a predictable roar.