Holy Water Buffalo, Brass Bed and Uintahs @ Neurolux; A Seasonal Disguise @ the Red Room (9/4/12)

The UT band Holy Water Buffalo has been through these parts a few times before, but I'd never gotten the chance to see them.  That in itself would've given me a reason to check out this most recent Radio Boise Tuesday.  It helped too that the bill featured Brass Bed, a Louisiana band whom I'd also never seen, and Uintahs, a local band whom I've grown quite fond of.  And of course, "Holy Water Buffalo" is one funny name.

Some work at home had tied me up, so I got down to the Neurolux a little late.  Thankfully, I managed to catch most of Unitahs's opening set.  Attendance was pretty sparse (only about 20 people), but at least the crowd gave the music an appropriately warm reception.

I'd very much enjoyed Uintahs's set at the Red Room a couple of weeks back, and this one was even better.  Marcus Youngberg's rapturous, aching howl sounded in fine form.  His and Perry Bentley's guitars sparkled, swirled and cascaded while Patricio Torres's chugging bass and Malcolm Youngberg's rumbling drums pushed the music relentlessly onward.  This was their first gig at the Neurolux, Marcus Youngberg told the crowd.  "I hope they let us come back."  I doubt that they'll need to worry about that.

Up next was Brass Bed.  Their dreamy yet clanging guitars, streamlined bass and muscular drums sounded just a little similar to Uintahs, but their evident classic rock influences gave them plenty of distinction.  They sounded like the Beatles one minute (pop melodies, boyish vocals, dancey beat) and Black Sabbath the next (screeching solos and sludgy, stomping outros).  "This is our first time in Idaho," their lead singer said at one point.  The way his face lit up when the audience responded with a big round of applause could suggest that it won't be the last.

Holy Water Buffalo played last.  Their long hair and tall, skinny frames screamed 70's classic rock, and their music matched their look--I heard some Stones, some Skynyrd, some Zeppelin, some Sabbath.  Luckily, they had the chops to pull it all off.  Crooned vocals joined with twangy, elemental riffs, bluesy solos, soulful keyboard parts, rubbery basslines and dynamite drumming.  Their strong groove and catchy melodies proved irresistible to the crowd, who cheered so loud that you'd have thought that there were two or three times as many people there.  "You guys are the shoot!" the lead singer told them.  "We're on the radio, gotta be careful."

After Holy Water Buffalo finished, I headed over to the Red Room.  Wes Malvini had been excited about booking a band from Oakland called Silian Rail for this week's Atypical Tuesday, which made me eager to see/hear what they're about.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance: both Silian Rail and the Dirty Moogs had canceled.  This left A Seasonal Disguise with the task of playing an extended set.  From what I caught of it, however, the local group handled the challenge just fine.  Z.V. House delivered stunning solos throughout, and his bandmates sounded even stronger and more confident than they did when I saw them back in May (especially drummer Annie Berical).  Consequently, their original material rocked harder and sounded lovelier than ever, their brooding take on "When the Levee Breaks" could look Led Zeppelin's right in the eye and their "Cortez the Killer" cover was an act of flat-out shamanism.  On that last song, House invited a member of the meager audience to sing when he couldn't recall the words.  That left him free to demonstrate just how eloquent his guitar can be.

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

Twin Suns, The Bare Bones and Uintahs @ the Red Room (8/22/12)

This show excited me because it gave me the opportunity to show some support for ORRiginal Promotions, whose shows I haven't gotten to write about in a while, and to see the Bare Bones and Uintahs, whose shows ditto.  The cherry on top was a set by Twin Suns, a Los Angeles band I'd never seen before.

As on Tuesday night, the crowd only built to about twenty or so.  Such is the rotten luck of playing on an off night, I guess.  At least the people who did show up got into the music (though it would've been nice if more people had stuck around to watch the out-of-towners).

Uintahs started off the night.  "Hats off to the best sound guy ever!" Marcus Youngberg proclaimed at the end of their set, and not without good reason: their celestial harmonies, rumbling drums and bass and glittering guitars sounded even better than I remembered.  The band deserved some credit too, of course, especially for their impeccably crafted songs, for their slinky but hard-hitting groove and for Marcus Youngberg, who has gotta be one of the best singers around these parts.

The Bare Bones played next.  Their piercing guitar, liquid basslines and relentless drumming all sounded a touch heavier than before, which was okay by me.  It just added more swagger and punch to their psychedelic/hard rock tunes.  Chris Brock's voice sounded lower and more forthright while his terse, screeching solos called to mind Ron Asheton more than once.  It always does my heart good to hear a good band getting even better.

Twin Suns closed out the night and met the challenge of following the two local acts with flying colors.  Light vocals and pensive, poppy tunes held firm within a maelstrom of thunderous drumming, rubbery bass, soulful sax, spacey synth and raging guitars.  While they did like their jerky stop-start bits, they liked their jazzy, funky grooves even more.  This allowed the handful of people in the audience to cut loose a little (and more than a little, in some cases).  Here's hoping that more folks get to see this group if/when they come around again.

You can find info on these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  And for any touring bands out there, you can contact ORRiginal Promotions at info@orriginalpromotions.com.

Uintahs, The Green Zoo and The Mighty Sequoyah @ Grainey's Basement (5/29/12)

I felt a little guilty about going to see this show.  I'd spoken with Josh Gross a week or so before and told him that I'd planned on seeing Godcrotch play the Red Room this same night.  And that had been true, but then I saw that my friend Keesha Renna's Vagabond Promotions had set up a show at Grainey's Basement featuring three bands I hadn't seen before.  Sorry, man.  See you another time for sure.

This looked like a promising bill: three local bands, two of which I hadn't seen before, and an excellent folk(ish) rock group from Utah.  A decent crowd had built up by the time that the first band took the stage, and it only grew as the evening progressed.  That made me happy for the bands and especially for Keesha: for as long as I've known her, she's been an enthusiastic supporter not just of the local music scene but of the Boise community as a whole.  Her hard work and dedication seems to be paying off, and deservedly so.  From what she's told me, Vagabond Promotions has some good shows set up in the upcoming months.  I expect that you'll be reading about a few of them here.

First up this night was Uintahs, a moody, tuneful four-man rock band based here in Boise.  If Coldplay or Echo and the Bunnymen decided to man up and not be such wimpy navel-gazers, they might sound a little like these guys: Patricio Torres' steadfast basslines and Malcolm Youngberg's rumbling, propulsive drumming cut through the layers of sparkling mist conjured up by Marcus Youngberg and Perry Bentley's guitars and keyboard.  That combination would have been beguiling enough, but what made it really take off was Marcus Youngberg's strong, aching, forthright tenor.  "We are Uintahs," Youngberg said at one point.  "Goddamn, you aren't gonna remember it, so don't even try."  I wouldn't be so sure of that.

Next up after Uintahs was local alt-rock band The Green Zoo.  This group clearly had talent to spare: their melodies and harmonies stuck to my ears, they stopped and started on a dime, their dirges were no less impressive than their rave-ups and leader Thomas Newby has got a helluva set of pipes on him.  In spite of all this, however, I just couldn't get into their music all the way.  The whole enterprise felt tainted by an adolescent, melodramatic self-absorption.  This came through most strongly in their lyrics' nostalgic idealization of childhood's simplicity and comfort.   Lines like "In the darkness, my nostrils flare" and "Sunlight taps at my window like a lost lover trying to wake me" just made matters worse.  I should probably note, however, that my fellow audience members seemed to like this group just fine.  Guess some folks have a higher tolerance for melodramatic self-absorption than I do.

After The Green Zoo came The Mighty Sequoyah, whose straight-ahead folk- and pop-tinged rock served as a tonic after the previous group's emo archness.  You could possibly think of this five-person group from Provo, Utah as the Beatles or the Byrds up top (twangy guitar jangle, ringing keyboard, yearning fiddle, angelic four-part harmonies) and the Rolling Stones or Cream down below (solid, unflashy bass and kinetic drumming).  At the head of it all rode lead singer Caleb Darger, whose clean, rousing high tenor suited the rootsy melodies perfectly.  This mixture proved irresistible to the crowd, who danced and cheered throughout the entire set.  A single picture doesn't do justice to the infectious good vibe of those thirty minutes, but thankfully, Keesha managed to record some of The Mighty Sequoyah's performance on her phone.  Hopefully, she'll post a clip of it online sometime soon.

I drifted over to the Red Room after The Mighty Sequoyah and consequently missed the closing set by Parade of Bad Guys.  Considering the previous performance of theirs that I caught, I don't imagine that it could've gone too badly.  Their fun-times roots-rock seems like just the thing to have kept the party going.

You can find info about all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Also, for any bands interested in booking shows around Boise, you can look up Vagabond Promotions on Facebook, email Whatvagabond@hotmail.com or call 1 208-283-0259.