Ronnie and the Reagans, Matt Stone and Starlings Mumurations @ the Crux; RevoltRevolt and Cusses @ the Red Room (4/19/13)

There were so many promising shows this night that it was a little ridiculous.  In addition to New Transit and the Blaqk Family Band at the Knitting Factory and Method Man and Redman at the Revolution Concert House (don't give me that look--Method Man is a smart dude), there were the Mowgli's and A Seasonal Disguise at Neurolux and Cusses, RevoltRevolt and Lucid Aisle at the Red Room.  In the end, however, I chose this show set up by Sun Blood Stories' Ben Kirby at the Crux.  For one thing, the price was right ($2 donation).  For another, it featured three Idaho acts who were all relatively new to me.

I counted about twenty-five people when I arrived at the Crux, including Ben Kirby, Amber Pollard and her daughter and Andy Rayborn (Brett Hawkins would show up later on).  There would only be fifteen in the crowd when Ronnie and the Reagans played.  Oh well.

Starlings Murmurations opened the show.  Show me someone who can nail a PJ Harvey cover and I'll show you someone who knows the way to my heart.  Even more than PJ Harvey, however, Kristy Scott's pristine, lonely voice, gorgeous melodies and cryptic, evocative lyrics made me think of Neil Young at his tersest and most haunting ("Helpless," "The Needle and the Damage Done," "Don't Let It Bring You Down").  Her gently jolting electric guitar gave the music some edge, but her eerie harmony tracks and atmospheric recordings of rain, flowing water and wind chimes were even more inspired touches.  And not only did she have great taste in literature--she played songs inspired by John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson--she showed it off without sounding stuffy or precious.  Breathtaking.

Matt Stone played next.  I already liked this guy plenty from his work in Fountains, Lakefriend and Deaf Kid, but this was something else entirely.  His catchy folk/country tunes, pleasantly crinkled tenor and detailed, witty, self-deprecating lyrics called to mind John Prine.  Then he busted out a cover of "Far From Me."  Sang it better than Prine too.  Very, very promising.

Ronnie and the Reagans from Idaho Falls closed out the show.  I caught a little bit of their set at the High Note Cafe back in February and thought that they sounded pretty good.  Happily, the full meal proved as satisfying as the bite size.  Franklin Tillo's fine-grained croon, Jean Caulfield's sweet growl and Zach Sherwood's agreeably rough shout rode atop lyrical, Clapton-esque guitar solos, soothing keyboard and swift, rumbling drums.  They shifted between swaggering funk, full-throttle hard rock and slow-burn soul with impressive ease.  Their menacing take on Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" rounded out this show's series of sharp covers.  My only complaint--and really, it's more an observation than a complaint--is that I thought they sounded just a little tame here.  That probably stemmed from the fact that they knew almost everyone in the modest crowd personally.  Give 'em a sizable audience to win over and I'll bet they could really rip it up.  Hopefully, they'll get that chance soon.

After Ronnie and the Reagans finished, I headed over to the Red Room.  Pete Thomas from Hopeless Jack and the Handsome Devil had recommended Cusses to me, so I wanted to see if I could catch at least some of their set.

I counted about thirty-five people at the Red Room.  A far cry from the 400-plus crowds that, according to Pete Thomas, Cusses draws in New York and L.A., but I guess that's how it goes when you're breaking into a new market.

The two songs that I caught by Cusses made me wish that I'd gotten to hear more.  Angel Bond belted out the tunes in a high, strong snarl.  She bounced, headbanged and strutted around so much that it was hard to get a picture of her where she didn't just look like a tornado.  Bryan Harder's gargantuan riffs and Brian Lackey's booming drums backed her up every step of the way.  A gentleman I spoke with at the bar compared this Georgia trio's decadent hard rawk to Motley Crue, and he had a point.  I'll add, though, that they sounded like they could eat Vince Neil and company for breakfast.  If they got up early enough for breakfast, anyway.  Definitely worth further investigation.

Local group RevoltRevolt closed out the night.  This set didn't surprise me as much as Matt Stone's did, but it came close.  They sounded three times better than they did when I saw them back in July, and I don't think it was just because I was a little out of it that night.  The sharp groove formed by Ben Wieland's rapid-fire drums and Jacob Frederickson's snaking basslines gave Chris Bock's tuneful drones and howling wah-wah noise liftoff.  Also, while I found Bock's shouted vocals a little irritating before, they proved very agreeable here in a D. Boon or Lee Ranaldo sort of way.  It's just a shame that the crowd thinned out significantly during this set.  Oh well.  At least Reggie Townley showed up with a couple of girls in tow to give his compatriots moral support.

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Mira Loma and the Bad Vibes, AAN and RevoltRevolt @ the Red Room (7/15/12)

Between attending six shows the preceding week and spending three hours earlier in the day swimming in the Boise River with a friend, I was good and tired this past Sunday night.  Part of me would have liked nothing better than to stay home, watch the new episode of Longmire, maybe finally polish off Nicholas Nickleby and go to bed.  In spite of that, the chance to see AAN, a Portland-based rock band whose Treefort set I'd missed, motivated me to haul my frazzled carcass down to the Red Room.

I arrived in time to catch most of the opening set by Florida-based shoegaze band Mira Loma and the Bad Vibes.  Their music suited my sun-fried condition quite well: serene tunes, dreamy guitar and synth parts and warm, calm bass over thunderous drumming.  When their guitarist pushed his fragile high tenor into a raw, raspy scream, it almost sounded like Kurt Cobain wailing down from Heaven.

AAN played next.  "The band beckons a bevvy of comparisons," their Facebook page says, "but their sound cannot be pigeonholed."  A lotta bands will make some such claim, but there's a certain creedence to it in this case.  Angular, syncopated drumming and steady basslines pushed forward disorienting guitar riffs, eerie tunes and harmonies and weird keyboard noises.  Somehow, all the elements fit together and even rocked.  Fascinating stuff.

Local indie-rock quartet RevoltRevolt closed out the night.  Their droning guitar riffs and basslines, propulsive drumming and simple, straightforward tunes showed the clear influence of 80's-90's alt-rock (Pixies, Built to Spill, etc.).  Their set went down pretty well overall, although the songs started to blur together as it wore on and the pitchless singing grew severely tiresome.

You can look up info on all these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.