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.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Wes Malvini and Evil Wine.  If you like what you've read and would like to help keep it going, click the yellow "Give" button and donate.  Even $5 would help.

Garage Voice and A Sea of Glass @ the Flying M Concert-Garage (11/29/12)

This show really excited me.  I found out about Garage Voice a few months back through their connection (on Facebook) to one of my favorite Treefort acts, Koko and the Sweetmeats.  I listened to their music, liked it and have kept tabs on them since then.  When I found out about this show, I immediately marked it down on my calendar.

I got out to the Flying M good and early.  I sat, read, drank some tea and watched about thirty people enter the concert-garage.  Not a huge crowd, but not bad for a Thursday.

Local group A Sea of Glass opened up the night.  Their playing was so tight and their songs so distinctive that I'm a little surprised that I'd never heard of these guys before.  Joseph Lyle's light, breathy singing and tender keyboard combined with Sam Carrier's jangly guitar, KJ Zimmerman's soaring violin, Justin Gaupp's sly basslines and Tyler Shockey's furious drumming to create a sound at once delicate and muscular.  Gorgeous melodies, yearning lyrics, quietly intricate arrangements.  A group to watch out for.

Garage Voice played next.  I don't think that fond memories of my Episcopalian upbringing can explain why I enjoyed this proudly and explicitly Christian trio's music so much.  Instead, it had a lot more to do with their proud and explicit blues and Negro spiritual influences, which intimated a sense of history and community as well as a familiarity with hardship, doubt and struggle.  This gave them a tremendous leg-up over, say, the Getaway Car, who for all of their chops didn't convey anything that some vanilla ice cream and ABC Family channel wouldn't cure.

Of course, it helped too that they rawked plenty.  Tommy Panigot's hypnotic riffs and clipped soloing, Bruce Pearson's fluid, ghostly organ and Patrick Toney's rumbling drums formed a raucous, smoothly jerky groove.  Panigot's light, clean tenor growled its way nicely through a brooding, stomping cover of "Changed My Name," a somber, uncertain-sounding cover of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and some cryptic, haunting original material.  Taken as a whole, their professions of faith had a complexity and idiosyncrasy that modern devotional art rarely achieves.

"He delivers," they proclaimed.  I don't know about Him, but Garage Voice certainly did.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.