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.

Ramona Falls, Dark Swallows and Sleepy Seahorse @ Neurolux (10/27/12)

Aside from hearing that its leader used to be in Menomena, I didn't really know anything about Ramona Falls before this show.  That would've been enough to attract my interest right there, but then a music-savvy friend's excitement about this gig got me excited too.  She didn't get off work in time, unfortunately, but I managed to make it down.

I got a little chagrined when I arrived at Neurolux and found only fifteen people inside.  Happily, the crowd would build to about sixty or seventy by the time that Ramona Falls took the stage.  I saw quite a few nifty Halloween costumes as I sat and waited for the show to start: Elvira, 70's cop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Carmen Miranda, Elliot from E.T. (the guy wore a red hoodie and carried around a plushie E.T. in a little plastic crate).  The hands-down winner, however, was the lady dressed as a binder full of women.  Almost as impressive were these guys who looked just like the Soft White Sixties.  Of course, they benefited from the fact that they were the Soft White Sixties.

Local act Sleepy Seahorse opened the show.  Joey Corsentino's hockey mask muffled his vocals slightly, but it did create the wonderful juxtaposition of Jason Voorhees singing like Michael Stipe (not to mention give me the chance to write down the horrible pun of Corsentino playing a really cool "axe").  Anyway, a highlight of this set was a solo-electric cover of the Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life," and Corsentino's originals sounded as tuneful and incisive as ever.

Next up was Dark Swallows.  I didn't recognize Ivy Meissner wandering around before the show with her blonde wig on and without her glasses.  When she sang in her somberly transported moan, however, I couldn't have mistaken her for anyone else.  Meanwhile, the band's rubbery basslines, indomitable drums and droning, howling, interweaving guitars sounded as hypnotic as they did at the Horse Feathers show back in August.

Ramona Falls took the stage dressed as the White Stripes and kicked off their set on a humorous note by playing a little bit of "Seven Nation Army."  They shifted from there to a series of serenely urgent original tunes that sounded slightly classical (as in Mozart, not the Stones) but somehow avoided feeling too fussy or genteel.  Brent Knopf's light but insistent murmur held plenty of charm but made it hard to hear the lyrics over the bar chatter.  But then again, the easy, playful camaraderie between Knopf's forward-marching guitar and tender keyboard and Lauren Jacobsen's high harmonies and soaring electric violin sent a clearly positive message.  So did the fact that, while Knopf may run the show, Jacobsen's violin took the lead throughout.

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

Horse Feathers, Dark Swallows and Grandma Kelsey @ the VAC (8/8/12)

Even if everybody and their grandmother hadn't encouraged me to check out this show (the Boise Weekly, Radio Boise, Go Listen Boise, AudioGnome, etc), I might've gone just to see the odd juxtaposition of friendly folkie Grandma Kelsey and melancholy drone-rockers Dark Swallows.  I like them fine individually, but putting them on the same bill?  Seemed to go together like cherries and pickles.  So of course, it intrigued me.

I'll say one thing about all the crud that has been in the air the past few days (there have been a few forest fires as well as a dust storm): it has made for some gorgeous sunsets.  The sun looked like a bloody gold coin as I drove down to the VAC this evening.  When I arrived, the diffused light made everything look like something out of Days of Heaven.

Who knew Garden City could actually look beautiful?

I counted about thirty people when I arrived, and that number would double as the night wore on.  I found a seat, read a bit from a book I brought along and listened to the old-school doo-wop playing on the PA system.

Local musician Kelsey Swope a.k.a. Grandma Kelsey started off the night.  I suppose that if her slightly shy earnestness had come off as forced or calculated at any point, her set would've made me want to scream.  But since it didn't, when she asked the audience to howl along to the chorus of her closer, I happily obliged.  That howled chorus, which she took from a dog and which symbolized man's fundamental loneliness and yearning to connect, is emblematic of Swope's music as a whole: it combines the cute with the absurd with the profound.  The tanginess of her lyrics balanced the sweetness of her singing and melodies, and her steady guitar strumming helped the blend go down.  If you have any tolerance for folkies, check out Grandma Kelsey sometime.  She's a rare bird and a good egg.

Here's a picture of the "love shrine" that Swope set up at the foot of the stage.  She brings it to all of her performances and encourages people to leave something out of love (not money--a little note or trinket).  If you find that icky, well, too bad for you.

After Grandma Kelsey came Dark Swallows.  I'd seen this group quite a few times before and enjoyed each performance, but none of them prepared me for this night's set.  I don't know if there's anything in Boise quite like this band's intricate weave of plaintive, memorable tunes, rousing guitar and bass riffs and precise, driving drums.  Their singing, playing and arrangements all sounded much smoother and more assured, which only added to the music's hypnotic power.  From what I heard this night, Dark Swallows are well on their way to becoming one of the absolute best groups in town.

Horse Feathers closed out the night.  This Portland band's moody, all-acoustic yet still rocking sound proved worthy of such disparate opening acts.  Justin Ringle's murmured vocals made it hard to hear exactly what he was saying, but I say give folkies a chance when they bring gifts (specifically some lovely melodies, a good drummer and a strong groove).  Of course, it helped that I liked what lyrics I could make out: their last song before their encore featured some sharp words about working your ass off to go back to a home you don't own.  When your group includes two violinists and a cellist and you still don't come off as fussy or precious, you're doing something right.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Very special thanks to Sam Stimpert and the VAC.

The Hardluck Cowboys @ the Crux; Dark Swallows, The Gunfighters, Range Life and Annex Madly @ the VAC (5/4/12)

This was a busy night.  I don't usually shift between two venues or shows (the big exception so far being Treefort), but I wanted to show my support for Speedy Gray, who was playing a show at the Crux with local musician Johnny Shoes, and for Keesha Renna, whose Vagabond Promotions set up a solid bill at the VAC.  Man, who woulda thought that being a hipster/ poseur would be so much damn work?


My first stop for the evening was the Crux.  Both Speedy and Johnny Shoes apparently lost a gig, which prompted them to put together this one-off show under the name The Hardluck Cowboys.  I stayed for a little over an hour, and I wish that I could've been there longer.  Playing without his compatriots in Like A Rocket, Speedy Gray got to demonstrate just how fine a singer he really is.  On his quietly devastating cover of "Sunday Morning Coming Down," he channeled Willie Nelson right down to the conversational, just-behind-the-beat phrasing.  As for Johnny Shoes, he proved himself a songwriter and performer cut from the same cloth as Guy Clark and John Prine (both of whom he's opened for, according to his Facebook page).  For the 75 or so minutes that I watched them, they traded stories, jokes, songs and solos like they'd played together for years.  It was so great that it felt downright criminal being almost the only person there to see it.  I did note, however, that a lot of pedestrians passing by the Crux slowed their pace a bit to rubberneck.

I noticed quite a few cars in the parking lot when I arrived at the VAC.  That boded well, I thought, for the bands playing, for the VAC and for my friend Keesha.  That's the spirit, people!

I got inside just in time to catch the tail-end of Dark Swallows' set.  They sounded in particularly good form this night, and some smoke and lasers created just the right ominous atmosphere for their music.  The little bit of their set that I saw confirmed for me that, much as I like Le Fleur, I prefer this group just a little more: to my ears, they've got a stronger beat, stronger riffs and especially stronger melodies.

Next up after Dark Swallows was the Gunfighters, a local six-person rock band who decided to film their set for use in a music video.  After listening to Speedy Gray and Johnny Shoes, the traces of blues and rockabilly in this group's music felt a little cosmetic.  However, I couldn't complain much about these folks, considering that they came equipped with solid melodies, pleasant harmonies, outstanding guitar solos and a funky rhythm section (the drummer's a monster with that hi-hat).

(Note: There were a LOT more people at the VAC than this picture suggests.  They were all just hanging back by the bar and hiding from the lights and the camera.)

After the Gunfighters came Range Life.  This marked the third time that I've seen this local group, and it was easily the best yet.  The extra oomph that they put into in their minimalistic rhythms, artfully artless singing and jangling, droning guitar interplay made clear that their sound stems not from a lack of ability but from conscious artistic choices.  It also made clear to me that, while their music definitely owes a debt to groups like Pavement, Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground, its true precursor is one of my all-time favorite groups (and a precursor of two of the bands that I just named, incidentally), Neil Young and Crazy Horse.  The unprojected vocals did make it hard to hear the lyrics, but the sure-fire tunes and razor-sharp soloing encouraged me to lean closer.  I'll look forward to seeing this group again and watching them develop further.

Closing out the night was local group Annex Madly, whose multi-textured, polyrhythmic rock and mysterioso light show owed something to bands like Nine Inch Nails.  My phone's crappy camera proved unequal to the task of capturing the darkened stage, the strobelights and the laser beams, so unfortunately, I don't have a picture of their set.  Maybe it's just as well--you might just need to see them live to get the full effect.

These guys had samples, noises, riffs, hooks and tunes galore.  The only thing that held them back was their singing, which I found at once too obtrusive and not obtrusive enough.  Music like this needs a belter/screamer like Trent Reznor to spearhead it or a gentle warbler like Bernard Sumner to stay out of its way.  Annex Madly's vocals seemed to insist on their own distinct identity, which I thought broke some of the spell that the music and lights tried to create.  All the same, the group's set was impressive and provided a good ending to the concert.

You can find info about Speedy Gray, Johnny Shoes, the groups who played the VAC and Vagabond Promotions on Facebook.