Red Hands Black Feet and Iconoplasty @ the Crux; Icarus the Owl and a.k.a. Belle @ the Red Room (8/11/13)

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Red Hands Black Feet.  Indeed, I've probably written more about them than any other band.  So of course I was gonna see them at the kickoff show for their and Iconoplasty's West Coast Tour.

Sidenote: They've been on tour for a couple of weeks now.  It's gone pretty well overall, but it's also had some hardships and difficulties.

I counted twenty-three people when I got to the Crux.  When Red Hands Black Feet played, I counted about seventy.  A very respectable crowd.

Iconoplasty opened the show.  Josh Gross certainly sounded raring to go: his guitar playing was sharp, his layering of riffs, licks and beats was precise and confident and his transitions between passages were smoother than ever.  It might have been nice if he'd stretched the individual passages out a little more, but then again, the quick change-ups were a good way of keeping people on their toes.  Figuratively, anyway--no one danced, but most everyone watched the stage.

This set featured a booming cameo from Jessica Johnson and a brief section where Gross invited people to say what they thought of the music.  Three people did so.

Jake Myers: "I like it!"

Dillon from San Francisco: "Although I like your music, it makes me feel like a I'm in a Beverly Hills nightmare."

Eric Gilbert: "More rock, less talk."

After Iconoplasty finished, I headed over to the Red Room.  Heather Roberts's Ten Gallon Cat had set up an intriguing bill featuring a.k.a. Belle and Portland rock band Icarus the Owl (she's actually been setting up quite a few interesting shows lately).  I can't lie, though: part of what attracted me to this show was the chance to see Roberts and the Fiddle Junkies' Austin Clark as Bette and Yvette, a.k.a. Belle's two "dancers."

a.k.a. Belle played first and sounded as strong and swinging as ever.  Chris Galli and Louis McFarland's smooth, assured grooves carried along Sam Merrick's screeching guitar and Catherine Merrick's warm, lovely voice.  Once again, it occurred to me that the touch of jazz in this group's sound helps make it a bit sexier than your average Americana act's.  This set featured a brooding new number entitled "Crooked Path" and a clever little quotation from "Like a Hurricane."

And yes, this was about as awesome as I'd hoped.

Icarus the Owl played soon after a.k.a. Belle.  The slight emo whine to Joey Rubenstein's vocals was counterbalanced by the band's rippling guitar licks and angular, disorienting tempos.  Conversely, the emo elements of the music helped keep the math-rock stuff from feeling too arch.  Sharp as a razor and chops to spare but not so's they'd brag about it.  Good stuff.

I would've liked to have stayed for Icarus the Owl's whole set, but I wanted to get back to the Crux in time for Red Hands Black Feet's set.  Walking over, I could hear them from a block away.

Red Hands Black Feet sounded more than ready to hit the road as well.  The material from their upcoming EP sounded as roiling, majestic and achingly beautiful as their older stuff.  The crowd did the expected whooping and nodding to the beat.  During one lyrical guitar intro, Jessica Johnson jumped offstage to hug people in the audience.  Then she got back behind her drum kit and bashed away.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Heather Roberts and Ten Gallon Cat.  And in case you didn't click on the link earlier, go here to learn how you can help Red Hands Black Feet get out of the red.

Maserati, Dark Swallows and Red Hands Black Feet @ Neurolux; Lost Weekend and Hedtriip @ the Red Room (2/28/13)

I hadn't heard much about Maserati, which would have given me reason enough to check them out.  The fact that they hailed from Athens, GA made them look promising, however.  So did the presence of local bands Dark Swallows and Red Hands Black Feet on the bill.

I counted about thirty people when I got down to Neurolux.  By the time that Maserati took the stage, the crowd had built to about a hundred.

Red Hands Black Feet opened the show.  I was glad to see them here since I'd been thinking about passing on their Treefort set this year (hey, it's not like I won't get to see 'em again, right?).  Anyway, this set gave me the opportunity to reflect again on just how far this band has come.  They've grown so comfortable and confident in their playing that this night's performance took on a certain stately grandeur.  It was as if the songs had become aware of their own greatness.  This doesn't mean that they sounded staid, however: some extra distortion and guitar embroidery here and some supple drumming there helped keep the older material fresh. The music was powerful enough on its own, but some flickering, twirling lights upped the intensity level another notch.

Great.  I might HAVE to see them at Treefort now.

Dark Swallows played next.  My eyebrow raised a little at the trumpet on their opener, but other than that, their somber tunes and their web of droning, howling guitars sounded as rousing and hypnotic as ever.  Maybe even more so, actually, thanks to the extra limberness in the bass and drums and the increased power in the vocals.  Mournful, fierce, beautiful.

Maserati closed out the night at Neurolux.  Rare is the group that can fuse Ministry with James Brown.  This band's percolating synth tracks, mind-warping guitars, sly basslines and ferocious, indomitable drums left me confused over whether to headbang or dance.  The crowd up front started off with a bit of the former but shifted more to the latter as the torrents of beats pounded into them.  Techno meets metal meets New Wave meets funk.  Stunning.

After Maserati finished, I staggered over to the Red Room to see if I could catch some of the show there.  I counted a little under forty people when I arrived.  Not too great, but not too bad.  At least the Maserati show didn't suck up all the show-goers/substance abusers this night.

I managed to catch the tail-end of electro-pop group Lost Weekend's set.  What I heard was definitely enough to make me wish I'd caught more.  Light, soulful vocals glided over layers of glimmering synth hooks and hard-driving beats.  Their songs were as catchy and dance-inducing as anything I've heard by, say, the Killers.  What's more, consultation with their Bandcamp recordings revealed some pretty sharp lyrics.  This band may hail from Winnipeg, but hopefully, we'll see them around here again.

Twin Falls electro-rock act Hedtriip closed out the night at the Red Room.  He seemed to have some technical difficulties early on, but once he sorted those out, his driving, intricate beats and riffs sounded as enjoyable as I remembered.  His set also featured new material that included--gasp!--vocals.  Should go over well at Treefort, I imagine.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Duck Club Presents.

With Child, Gem State and Sleepy Seahorse @ Neurolux; The Butcher Boy and Red Hands Black Feet @ the Red Room (1/15/13)

I decided to check this show out mainly because it gave me the chance to see With Child again.  I'd heard that Elijah Jensen had added some new personnel--to wit, his brothers Jeremy and Noah along with Ethan Smith--and was curious to see how this augmented lineup would affect the music.  Also, I was curious about local musician Tim Andreae, whom I'd never encountered before and who was performing with a band under the name Gem State.

I counted about twenty-five people when I arrived at Neurolux.  Another twenty or so would show up as the evening progressed.  I took up my usual spot at the bar and listened to the Talking Heads and Pixies songs on the PA, which were selected by my friend Daphne Stanford.  She hosts The Poetry Show on Radio Boise every Tuesday at 12:30 pm.  She's a pretty good poet herself, though she might deny it.

Sleepy Seahorse opened the night.  The fan of the perverse in me kinda wished that Joey Corsentino had sung with the Jason mask on again, but that's really neither here nor there.  Corsentino's tunes sounded as warm and well-crafted as ever.  The same went for his backing tracks and lyrics.  His voice, however, was in especially fine form.  The slight whine in Corsentino's vocals felt less like a cross to bear and more like a show of empathy for all the sadsacks out there.  It seemed to say, "Look, fellas, I've been there before.  It'll be okay."

Gem State played next.  Tim Andreae's backers (which included Thomas Paul and Mostecelo/Palankeen's Rebeca Suarez) deserve the Jennifer Warnes/Sharon Robinson Award for Most Valuable Backup Singers: their witty, acerbic, angelic interjections went a long way toward making this set halfway tolerable.  Perhaps Andreae's prolix, tuneless story-songs will sound better in their proper order on the album that he said he's working on.  In this context, however, they felt mostly like in-jokes that I wasn't in on.  Even the songs whose melodies/lyrics I liked tended to hang around like a socially inept friend who won't take the hint to go home.  The reedy, slightly smug flatness of Andreae's vocals didn't do them any favors either.

With Child's set threw me for a loop.  Having seen/heard the Jensen boys in various capacities last year, I expected that the tunes would be as solid as rock candy.  I was completely unprepared, however, for  Jeremy Jensen's piercing solos, for Noah Jensen's fluid, melodic basslines and for Ethan Smith's propulsive drumming.  As for Elijah Jensen, he seemed to be in a particularly rowdy mood: he flipped off his trademark mesh cap, got some sharp interplay going with Jeremy and put some extra lung power into his charming croon.  He also dropped the F-bomb a few times, which apparently caused the live broadcast of the show to get cut off.  Personally, I gotta give the man props: that was easily the most punk rock thing that has happened at any Radio Boise Tuesday show.  It was just too fuckin' bad that the folks at home probably didn't hear the part where Elijah Jensen got everyone to shout, "I LOVE YOU!" or the ten-minute-plus jangle/Spector/surf/disco mash-up finale.  Wrote it for his mom, Elijah Jensen said.  She should be proud.

One upside to being unemployed right now: I can see a show at Neurolux and then swing by the Red Room without having to worry about getting up the next morning.  That's exactly what I did this night after With Child wrapped.

I arrived in time to catch the tail end of the Butcher Boy's set.  Between this Maine band's obnoxiously flat vocals, dirge-y guitar riffs and toy xylophone, however, I might have been better off hanging out at Neurolux for just a little longer.  Their music was clearly well-crafted and not quite as insular as Gem State's, but it still got pretty annoying.  Maybe if I'd seen the whole set...  Then again, maybe not.

Red Hands Black Feet closed out the Red Room's show with a typically solid performance.  They brooded their way through their newest song, made "Django's Last Ride" yowl and shriek and stretched out the intro to "This is What You Get When You Befriend a Stranger in the Alps" like they were pulling taffy.  The fifty-plus people in the crowd whooped and hollered it up.  A fine way to end the night.  I kinda missed "Sink the Bismarck," but I imagine that I'll hear it again sometime soon (and not just because I picked up a copy of their album, which is also available on Bandcamp now).

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.

Red Hands Black Feet, First Borns and Lakefriend @ the Red Room (12/20/12)

In a way, this show had been about a year in the making.  That's how long it had taken Red Hands Black Feet to record, mix, master and release their debut album, These Things Are Important.  From what I've heard, it had been tough finding the time and the money to get it done, but they finally did it.  Given how much praise I've heaped on this group, I probably don't even need to write that I put this show down on my calendar as soon as I heard about it.

Happily, I apparently wasn't the only one.  I counted about forty-five people when I got down to the Red Room.  By the time that Red Hands Black Feet played, that number had to have climbed to seventy if not higher.  It feels good to know that I'm not the only one who loves this group.

Caldwell group Lakefriend opened the show.  They sounded a touch tamer and looser than I've seen them recently, which gave me space to notice how quite a few of their songs seem to follow the same basic pattern (fast section, stop-start section, etc.).  This doesn't mean that they weren't still enjoyable, however.  Also, Gabe Arellano's bass playing sounded much smoother and more confident that it did at the Cheap Time show.  This helped ensure that, when they all hit their groove, Mason Johnson and Matt Stone's complementary guitars and Jacob Milburn's rapid drumming took off once again.

Local group First Borns played next and sounded in excellent form.  Erik Butterworth's drums sounded especially strong and added extra propulsion and power to Alex Hecht's chiming guitar and Christopher Smith's rumbling, droning bass.  A couple of new (I think) surf-punkish songs sounded good and menacing while their older material was as broodingly tuneful as ever.

Red Hands Black Feet closed out the night with a downright majisterial performance.  They glided, weaved, slammed and rumbled their way through the entirety of their album as if it were second nature to them (which, after playing the same damn stuff for at least two years, it probably is).  The audience seemed to know the songs by heart too: I heard folks cheering climaxes and shifts in mood and tempo.  This was in addition to the usual headbanging, whooping and screaming that RHBF's music tends to provoke.  Even one of the Red Room's bartenders gave them the thumbs-up.  The band members gave the love right back with multiple thank-you's to the crowd and to the people who have supported them (Eric Gilbert, Josh Gross, etc.).

This night reconfirmed a belief that I've held for a while: that this is a great band and one that deserves recognition beyond Idaho.  Now that they've got their music recorded, maybe they can truly start to make that happen.

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

Luna Moth, Red Hands Black Feet and Stargaze Unlimited @ Neurolux (11/13/12)

Looking back, I feel a little bad about seeing this show.  The show was fine in itself (sorry for the spoiler), but I found out afterwards that there was another one this same night at the Shredder featuring three bands I hadn't seen before.  They included one from New York and another from the U.K.  Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.  Happily, I've got an upcoming show there marked on the calendar (haven't been out there in a while).  Anyway, I won't complain much about seeing Stargaze Unlimited or Red Hands Black Feet again.

I counted about forty people when I arrived at Neurolux.  The audience would thin out some by the time that Luna Moth played, unfortunately, but at least the ones who stayed paid attention to the music.

Stargaze Unlimited opened the show.  Richard Metzger couldn't make the gig due to work (Kurtis Beckwith told me this later), so they played with a substitute drummer.  The man seemed to have a little trouble keeping up, but expecting him to slip right into the regulars' tight groove probably would've been too much to ask.  All things considered, he did okay.  In any case, Travis Gamble's basslines marched stoically onward while Kurtis Beckwith's guitar hissed and snarled.

Red Hands Black Feet played next.  They started off strong by playing the first new song that I think I've heard since I started coming to their gigs (though admittedly, I've seen so many of them now that it's kinda hard to remember).  Anyway, the new song met the melodious, intricate, powerful standard set by their more familiar material and topped them for density.  They kept the momentum going by ripping through their older stuff like Steve McQueen tearing through the streets of Frisco in his Mustang.

Luna Moth from Oklahoma closed out the night.  Singer Joey Paz told the crowd at one point that they actually had a full band back home.  That surprised me and a couple of my friends: their mix of ringing guitar, nimble drums, haunting whistles and eerie, quavery vocals sounded pretty much complete unto itself.  The lyrics poured so quickly out of Paz that it was a little hard to suss them, but what I caught sounded interesting.  Also, the quietly lovely, Nick Drake-ish melodies gave the folks who stuck around a nice way to cool down after Red Hands Black Feet.

One of my friends remarked that this music suited a modest crowd like this.  He had a point: this stuff benefitted from the breathing room.  Judging from this group's recordings, though, it'd be nice if more people showed up when/if the complete lineup rolls through town.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.

JJAMZ, Superhumanoids, Red Hands Black Feet and Kristopher Rabbit @ the Venue; Amy Bleu @ Grainey's Basement (9/9/12)

I've never made any secret about how much I love Red Hands Black Feet, but what really attracted me to this show was JJAMZ.  I'd dug what I'd heard from lead singer Z. Berg's previous band, the retro-60's outfit the Like, so I was curious to see what this project was all about.

Regrettably, not many others felt the same way.  This show might have suffered from the Lightning Bolt show at the Shredder and the simple bad luck of taking place on a Sunday.  I counted about twenty-five people there at its peak, including me and a few members of the bands.  So it goes.

First up this night was local group Kristopher Rabbit, whose industrial riffs and beats, tortured lyrics and angsty vocals owed a clear debt to groups like Nine Inch Nails.  These guys looked awfully nervous--I overheard one of them say afterward that they'd only rehearsed a week--but their songwriting definitely showed promise.  If I may be so bold, though, I would offer a piece of advice: it's usually good for frontmen face the front of the stage.

Red Hands Black Feet played next.  The modest crowd grooved out to the blending and weaving guitars, the surging basslines and the ever-more-supple drumming.  Their growing confidence and finesse gave the songs extra power and lyricism.  Another excellent performance.  Yawn.  (Just kidding.)

After Red Hands Black Feet came the Los Angeles-based band Superhumanoids.  Their Facebook page says some stuff about how they employ "summery '60s harmonies" and "the adventurous dissonance of '90s indie-rock," but what I heard was straight-up '80s: some Echo and the Bunnymen, some Kraftwerk, some Georgio Moroder, some Miami Vice soundtrack.  Murmured and cooed vocals, catchy tunes, glinting guitar, smoothly funky rhythms, multicolored synth hooks.  Their luded-out "I Wanna Be Sedated" cover spoke volumes for their brains, good taste and sense of humor.

Last up was JJAMZ.  This group owed a VERY clear debt to Blondie, and I'm not saying that just because Z. Berg was almost a dead ringer for Debbie Harry with her gorgeous cheekbones, breathy/growly delivery and coyly provocative stage act.  This wasn't some cosmetic job, though.  Their bouncy tunes, chiming guitar interplay, charming synth and tough, slinky, swinging rhythm section struck a nice balance between "Heart of Glass" and "One Way Or Another."  Premium grade pop-rock.  It's just a pity that more people weren't there: when/if this group comes back around, everybody else may have to pay double or triple what I did.  So it goes.

I stopped by Grainey's Basement after JJAMZ wrapped up in hopes of catching the set by local experimental duo the Finer Points of Sadism.  Unfortunately, I had to leave before they played (I started my new day job at 7 am the next morning), but I did get to catch some of the set by Portland-based songwriter Amy Bleu.  Her sly quaver, sweet folk melodies and twisted lyrics provided just the right coda to my night.  Highlights included "A Young Man Going to the Movies," a nice little original ditty about a guy who beats to death a couple of jackers (true story, she said), and a brilliant cover of Alice Cooper's "Poison."

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