The Gunfighters, The Horde and the Harem and a.k.a. Belle @ the Red Room (3/27/13)

I'd had this show marked on the calendar for weeks, but when the day came, I wasn't sure if I'd go.  I'd had enough time to recover physically from Treefort, but I still needed to finish my write-ups.  In the end, however, I just couldn't pass on the chance to see a.k.a. Belle and the Gunfighters, both of whose Treefort sets I'd missed.  I was also curious about the Seattle band the Horde and the Harem.

There were maybe five non-musicians at the Red Room when I got there.  There might have been eleven or twelve when the music started.  Guess folks needed more recovery time.  Still, I did count more than thirty people in the crowd by the time that the Gunfighters played.

a.k.a. Belle's opening set featured a couple of pleasant surprises.  The first surprise was Brion Rushton and Zane Norsworthy as Bette and Yvette, the "dancers" on a sleazy, Link Wray-esque instrumental.  The second was Gia Trotter, whose utterly gorgeous harmonies made me think that she really oughtta get out and do more stuff around town.  The setlist, which leaned heavily on material from their upcoming second album, wasn't as surprising for me; Catherine Merrick had actually invited me to sit in on some of their recent recording sessions.  The songs all sounded as smart, tough and melodious as I remembered, however, and the band was definitely on their game.  Highlights included the morning-after vignette "Collecting Songbirds" and Sam Merrick's "High Inane Drifter," a pitiless portrait of a screw-up which would sound right at home on Tonight's the Night.

Bette and Yvette.  I'm not sure which is which.

The Horde and the Harem played next.  A couple members of the band told me later that they'd applied to play Treefort this year but didn't make the cut.  That's a pity: their layered harmonies, compassionate lyrics, jangling guitars, rumbling grooves and playful, inviting stage presence would have gone over very nicely at Pengilly's or the Linen Building.  They certainly went over well here; the modest crowd danced and cheered warmly.  They tossed a pinch of African music into their folk/country tunes, but their words were so smart and grounded that this felt less like arty hipster dabbling and more like genuine multiculturalism.  Here's hoping that this group comes back around sometime.

The Gunfighters closed out the night with a flat-out astonishing set.  Spencer Sanders's recovery from his coma and brain injury seems to have not only reinvigorated this band but transformed them.  A tip-off came when one of the guitarists played a little bit of "Hell's Bells" during soundcheck.  However, that still didn't prepare me for their locked-in groove and hard-rocking force.  Sanders's vocals sounded slier and more confident than ever.  Also, the man was so pumped-up that he couldn't seem to stand still: he strutted all over the stage and dropped down to dance with the crowd.  Meanwhile, the guitars roared, the rhythm section flexed their muscles and Katie Vant's harmonies soared.  Bravo.

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

mr. Gnome, Finn Riggins and the Gunfighters @ the Red Room (11/1/12)

This show marked the return to Boise of the Cleveland rock duo mr. Gnome.  I'd caught their Treefort set, and they hadn't sounded like any other band I'd heard before.  So I was interested to find out how they would strike me on a second go-round.

There were over seventy people at the Red Room when I arrived.  Another fifty or so would show up by the time that mr. Gnome played.  Pretty fantastic for a Thursday night.  Guess I wasn't the only one who'd been impressed at Treefort.

The Gunfighters opened the night.  I'm not exactly sure why their music sounded quirkier here than it did at any other time that I've seen them.  Their costumes can't account for it, I think (though their lead singer's black mask and makeup were kinda bizarre).  The new horn parts could partially.  Whatever the reasons, I didn't consider the slight uptick in weirdness a bad thing.  On the contrary, it just gave the music more character.  Of course, it helped that their guitars sounded as sharp and Katie Vant's harmonies as sweet as ever.  Now, if someone could tell me what was up with the guy off to the side painting a picture...

After the Gunfighters came Finn Riggins, who may have taken their supporting slot as a dare to really kick out the jams.  Lisa Simpson in particular whipped up one helluva racket on her guitar, carving out some terse solos and cranking out the distortion as if she were planning to audition for Sonic Youth.  Meanwhile, Eric Gilbert made his keyboards clang and wail, and I could feel Cameron Bouiss's drums trying to punch a hole through the back of my skull.  For all of the noise, however, they sounded as charming and melodious as usual.

Speaking of charming...

This just made me smile.

mr. Gnome's headlining set reinforced my good impression of them and then some.  They remain the only band I can think of who can evoke Valhalla and Sesame Street in the same song and sometimes in the same measure.  Nicole Barille cooed, sighed and yelped while her guitar tinkled one moment and went nuclear the next.  Sam Meister's drums stomped, bounced, skipped and pulverized.  "We really do love this town," Barille said before their encore, "so thank you guys for treating us so well."  The crowd earned the compliment: they swayed, threw up the horns and headbanged throughout much of the set.

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

Deaf Kid, The Gunfighters, Annex Madly and Rubedo @ the Shredder (6/8/12)

A couple of brief coming attractions.

Just last week, I received a request to review the latest album by a band I wrote about not long ago.  It's a little outside the standard scope of this blog--the band's from Utah, not Idaho--but they did play here in Boise recently, and in any case, I like their music so much that I couldn't refuse.  I'll get my post on the album written and published soon.

In addition to this, I just conducted my first email interview with a local band!  You'll likewise get to read that very soon (just need to get it typed up).  It'll be the first of what I hope will be several interviews with local up-and-coming bands/musicians whose work has caught my attention.  Hope y'all enjoy them!

Keesha Renna's Vagabond Promotions set this show up, so I wanted to go down and show my support.  Also, I'd heard good things about Deaf Kid from quite a few people and wanted to see/hear for myself.  The night was not without its hitches: not many people showed up, one scheduled band never appeared, and Rubedo's van broke down a few miles out of town and kept them from reaching the Shredder until 11:30.  So that goes, I guess.  Music-wise, however, the night went over just fine.

Four-man Caldwell group Deaf Kid started off the night.  I took it as a good sign when they played parts of Joy Division's "Disorder" and Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" during their soundcheck.  Their set proved me right: energetic post-punk/surf-rock beat, trebly guitar lines, solid tunes and, best of all, intelligible lyrics.  My favorite of the three bands that I've seen Jacob Milburn in so far and the two bands that I've seen Dominic Munoz in.  As for drummer Matt Stone, I'd rank this group as on par with his other group, Fountains.

Six-person Boise band The Gunfighters followed Deaf Kid.  Seeing them a second time confirmed my first impression that the traces of blues and country in their music add seasoning to what is basically a good pop band: catchy tunes, swinging rhythm section, bad-ass guitars, pleasant harmonies, decent lyrics (although I'm not entirely sure what "We are the founding fathers of the watchmakers" means).  They played to the two handfuls of people at the Shredder with no discernible flagging in their good spirits.  They'd get my respect just for that.

After The Gunfighters came local electronica trio Annex Madly.  Their performance this night demolished my reservations about this group's vocals.  While I found them obtrusive the first time around, they struck me the second time around as humanizing in the manner of, say, Bernard Sumner or Gary Numan.  This left me free to ride on their waves of beats, tunes, riffs and textures.  Purely enjoyable.

Denver art-rock trio Rubedo closed out the night.  Their set didn't start until 1:30 a.m., but their tough, playfully psychedelic music definitely kept the nine people in their audience awake.  They shifted effortlessly between straight-ahead rock, stomping metal, reggae and jazz.  Alex Raymond's guitar sang and shrieked where appropriate.  Synth player Kyle Gray belted out the smart, funny lyrics in his high voice and stomped and gyrated like a wild man.  Greg Ziemba's drums kept everyone on their toes.  Everything went swimmingly until some blown fuses forced Rubedo to cut their set short.  Geez--these poor guys just couldn't get a break this night.

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

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.