I'm a sucker for interesting names, and Hi Ho Silver Oh and LeAnnimal interested me. With names like those, of course, the risk is that the groups will prove so cutesy-poo that they'll make my dinner come up. Still, I'd never seen any of the acts on this bill before, so I swung down to Neurolux.
I counted about thirty people when I arrived. The crowd would build to about forty by the time that Hi Ho Silver Oh played. Pretty modest for a Friday night, but there was a lot of other stuff happening around town (see below for an example).
LeAnnimal opened the show. These days, it seems like you can't throw a rock without hitting a fluttery-voiced songstress who comes bearing some lullaby melodies and some oddball, sweet-and-sour lyrics. Still, this local musician had enough smarts and shy, spunky charm to get over. Maybe she could just work on not banging the mic with her guitar and ukulele. And maybe she could go easy with the lyrics about the Lost Boys too.
Charlyne Yi played next. It was the smirk that did it. That little touch of self-satisfaction, of saying, "Look how cute and funny I'm being!" That was what pushed me over the line from thinking, "Well, this is kinda funny and the drummer's good and the riffs are decent and this girl ain't no kinda singer but I'll roll with it" to thinking, "I paid money for this shit?" I should add, though, that most everyone else in the crowd seemed to feel that they got their five dollars' worth. A bunch of people stood close to the stage and danced and laughed and clapped along to Yi's tone-deaf, excruciating cover of "Georgia on My Mind."
Hi Ho Silver Oh closed out the night at Neurolux. It's nice when your patience gets rewarded. This Los Angeles group's mix of sinuous basslines, bouncy drumming, glittering dual guitars and ringing harmonies was worth much more than the $5 cover charge. Their pop-tunes were as tasty and their beats as danceable as you could want, but they could churn the sludge and crank out the distortion too. This was their first time in Boise, they said. Hope it won't be their last.
After Hi Ho Silver Oh wrapped up, I headed over to the Shredder to check out the benefit for Jason Burke a.k.a. "Bug," a local musician/scene regular who injured his back in a sledding accident. I was happy to see over forty people there showing their support. I caught a pretty good set by local punk trio Radillac and a pretty great one by Hotel Chelsea, but honestly, the music was beside the point. Hopefully, Bug's gonna get a nice chunk of change from this shindig. On that note, if y'all have some money to spare, click here to send some of it Bug's way.
Hotel Chelsea's bassist Mikey Rootnote did not appreciate getting antagonized by a hot-pants-wearing, well-into-his-cups Adam Showalter (a.k.a. local mock-gangsta act Sword of a Bad Speller). However, I'm sure he appreciated Showalter getting dunked in the water tank set up behind the Shredder. Showalter still stuck around afterwards to groove out to Hotel Chelsea's set.
Next time people think about talking smack about Josh Gross, they should consider this: the man was willing to strip down to his boxers and get dunked in water in the middle of winter to help raise money for an uninsured convalescent. That's gotta count for something.
You can find info on the groups in this post on Facebook and elsewhere online. And again, if you'd like to contribute to Bug's recovery fund, click here.
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