gabedouglas

I had seen a bit of there set in Austin @ SXSW in March. Rumor has it that the guitar tech played guitar there, but I am unsure about all of that. I do know that they were playing outside in the afternoon and weren’t anything I would write home about.
They have a lot of aspects I like. The rhythm of most songs consists of heavy drums’n'bass (think Secret Machines) and the quasi-nasal voice reminds me of a favorite lyricist (the Weakerthans), but it never really comes together for me in their short songs. The lighting they brought in was good in some parts, but mostly completely epileptic-inducing. I’m all about LED lights, but you you can’t use the brightest white setting and chase scenes under a second for more than a few songs.
I’m curious to see what they do next, but I am still not a devotee.

First band is “Weird Al”
I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I liked Weird Al growing up and he introduced me through covering some artists to people I would have never even known of.
Anyways, hilarious. I enjoyed it immensely. Mostly because the band was spot-on and the lead singer actually resembled Weird Al. (He was in lobby with Hawaiian shirt, curled hair, and moustache before the show.)

*Added note is that a larger man entered as they were belting out “Fat” (parod of “Bad” by Michael Jackson)

Second band “Wilco”

They started with ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’. It was alright. The singer is trying to give Tweedy justice and is barely squeaking by.
They played “At Least That’s What You Said” and they rocked the rock out pretty well.
The rest was alright.

Third band (Jason Shannon) “Johnny Cash”

Solid. His voice is much more polished and john butleresque than mr. Cash’s.. but he did a solid job.

friday was cloud cult and halloween alaska.
they had a band called captain yonder open. they sucked. a lot.
halloween, alaska sounded great. jake hanson (from cowboy curtis & superdanger) now does some guitar and background vox work, which helps fill-in the layering stuff they do.
great set, did a remix of ‘call it clear’, i don’t think i was a fan, but the rest of the set was solid.
cloud cult did great. they brought in some of their own lighting rig, which made it all the more ethereal. they played an ENTIRELY different set list then duluth, which made me smile. i mean a lot of overlapping songs, but different order, different songs too, different jams, just good times.
sidenote: they all were huddled together as a band putting their cd inserts into recycled jewel cases before the show. very warming moment.

nu-metal.

shudder.

ALTHOUGH the bands were good people.

I cannot get behind this scene at all. Monster Magnet shall live on forever in one form or another I guess.

I only knew Starsailor from their song, “Good Souls” from Way back in the day, I’m thinking 2000ish. Anyways dug that song, and thought they were one of the instrumental bands in bringing the whole piano-indie-layered-euro over to the states. Shortly after I heard “Good Souls” is when i started to hear the tremors of a band called Coldplay.

Their entire set was very well layered-wall-of-sound stuff. Not The Who wall-of-sound, but a very dense and rhythmic wall-of-sound. I really enjoyed it, they’d build it up and strip it down with ease and precision.

Good solid show.

shelley short reminded me of jolie holland. weird metered folkie finger-strummed stuff.
i liked her voice. the light-hearted drumming is still something i can’t get behind.

as they loaded in i saw that two of the band members for M. Ward were actually also a part of Norfolk & Western, who won me over with their alt-folk-country appeal when they opened for DeVotchka about a month ago. the drummer, rachel, was drumming beside another full-kit manned by jordan. i’m always questioning two full trap sets, but tonight they fed off each other and Matt (M. Ward) and it was a great addition to the sound.

The sound was sort of a Mexican-bluesy type, with M. Ward giving the slightly-hoarse, growly whisper vocals. He used his whammy bar incessantly, which usually annoys me (see 80s shred-metal), but he used it well in an almost honky-tonk way, giving slight solos to accompany his singing between verses. when the entire band got into the outro of songs, it became a very organic experience, as the drummers fed off of M. Ward’s visual cues, which weren’t really staged, but felt. and the endings were always crisp and tight.
organic and tight is my favorite duo for any type of music.

good show.