Garage Voice, Wellspring and Honor and Starlings Murmurations @ Neurolux (6/30/13)

With their alt-gospel sound, Garage Voice was one of the most interesting bands that I saw last year.  When I saw that they'd be coming back, I jumped at the chance to see them again.  As an added bonus, the bill included Wellspring and Honor, a group I hadn't seen in well over a year, and Starlings Mumurations, whom I could probably stand to see a couple dozen more times.

I counted about fifteen people when I got to Neurolux.  When Garage Voice played, I counted about twenty-five.  So it goes on a Sunday.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Kristy Scott seemed even more confident this time around.  She played while standing, and her singing had an extra ease, depth and nuance to it.  Her guitar playing felt stronger and steadier as well.  All of this gave her music added power; at times, she even reminded me a little of Sera Cahoone.

Wellspring and Honor played next.  This group sounded much more together than they did at Grainey's Basement fourteen months ago.  Slashing riffs met with curling basslines and rumbling drums.  They still didn't quite seem to hit at the same time at points, and Marco Montero didn't seem to have the pipes or the conditioning to belt and stretch out like he wanted.  However, that didn't detract much from the appeal of their well-crafted songs.  Put them at eighty-five or ninety percent of the way there.

Garage Voice sounded a little different than I remembered.  Not that they sounded bad--their music just seemed to have a much stronger soul/R&B feel here.  Stax and Motown devotee that I am, this didn't bother me at all.  Tommy Paginot's clean vocals and fiery guitar blended with Bruce Pearson's spooky, jolting organ and Patrick Toney's tight, swinging drum work.  I worried for a while that no one else was paying attention, but I noticed a few people going up to talk with the band afterwards.  Hopefully, there'll be more next time.

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