The set change took what seemed like an extra long time and the crowd seemed a bit antsy, as did singer Leyla Safai ("Lo"), who bounced around the stage yelling mokingly at people through her glittery covered megaphone (which she told me she made the previous night.) HeartsRevolution has a fun pop- electric sound (created by Ben Pollock) with the vocals of Lo meshed in, who doesnt so much sing as yell into her microphone. I was struck by such a contrast; the rest of the sound was quite smooth and Lo herself quite pretty looking yet her vocals left me feeling as if I was struggling to try and hear what her voice actually sounds like through heavy layers of distortion and the strain she was adding to her vocals. Whether it was through this mix or a simple consequence of the acoustics, I wasn't able to understand more than a few words of what she was saying. In fact, she apprently sang some in Japanese though I wasn't able to catch any (and I should mention I took Japanese in high school!)
Though I like the thrash concept of crazy, energetic vocals on top of smooth beats I decided that I prefer to hear melodic vocals even though they may lack that "Edge" many bands are trying to achieve these days. The amazing standout of the bunch was drummer "Prince Terrence", who kept up a fast paced show, doing a dance seated on his stool with more rhythm than I see from most folks on the dance floor. He also proved quite film worthy, as the cameraman continued to circle Prince Terrence during his performance (and incidentally interfered with my camera's exposure) and I could completely see why he earned to be in the spotlight.
