Four experimental/hardcore/indie bands play back-to-back and every set begins and ends on time. WTF!? When in the history of rock-and-roll has that ever happened before?
I regret not getting the sound guy's name. He ran the sound checks like a military drill; his quick staccato directions seemed to surprise some of the musicians but weren't insulting enough to invoke a reaction against the man. The first bands up (Shore Leave and Ho-Ag) were quite well balanced. We Versus the Shark sounded good too, but then Big Bear came on absurdly loud and unbalanced, which ruined their music and, more importantly, my night (it wasn't the sound guy's fault though, to be entirely clear).
Big Bear's set was especially disappointing considering how well their songs are recorded; Big Bear's Mono24 LP is creative and innovative. Performing live, however, they sounded like a crummy teenage hardcore band - just a continuous barrage of loud sound. All of the articulation and blending was lost; Jordyn Bonds' unique punctuated singing was barely decipherable; and when you could pick out an individual instrument it just sounded inane against the barrage of noise. Get it together Big Bear! As photographer Jenny Rushlow shouted to me after we ducked out- "If I've lost my hearing from that crap, I'm going to murder them."
Working backwards through the night, We Versus the Shark preceded Big Bear with a chaotic set which occasionally lost focus, but kept me jumping for most of the performance. The cover songs that littered the set paled in comparison to their original pieces, almost to the point of feeling inconsequential. Their new songs though, were great. A shift from their earlier music, the songs on their new album, Dirty Versions (officially released July 1st), have a more hard core, math rock sound with more epic buildups, more notes, and more complex rhythms. This new direction translated well to their live performance - especially on the epic pieces - and I particularly enjoyed the complex interaction between the bass and guitars. The harmony and open space present in the recordings was noticeably absent, however. Although at first disappointing, it is understandable that they would play up their broad, full rock sound when playing live. Besides, who wouldn't rather hear a different sound live than an exact replication of the album version (even if the studio renditions are musically preferable)?
Ho-Ag was phenomenal. The instruments blended really well together so that you could appreciate what they were doing individually and as an ensemble. Their experimentation with a wide variety of sounds was especially interesting to hear live. Nothing was over-used, odd harmonies and atonal or chromatic melodies would appear in some songs, heavy distortion in others; the occasional scream here and more linear singing there. Terry DerryBerry (vocalist/electronics) was all over the stage and even whipped out a megaphone for a few songs, but, remarkably, did not come across as obnoxious or pretentious- his stage presence and megaphone-enhanced vocals were just interesting and exciting. This is a band to see live.
Shore Leave opened the night strong set, with positive stage presence. With promising talent and an original sound we can expect to hear some great concerts this summer now that they're getting back into the scene. (They couldn't' book many gigs while their bassist was in the most demanding year of his PHD from MIT.) The drums (Sean Mullan) supported the band with unassuming but thoughtful rhythms, while the bass, guitars, and keyboards meshed into a blend of rhythmic harmony. Feeling this unit build these almost dance-able swells was tremendously satisfying. Check out A Horse with Three Legs on their myspace to get an idea, but to get the full effect, it's well worth seeing live.
In all, this was a lineup that worked; I felt as though I were listening to Pandora (with the volume turned up extremely high) for two-plus hours. All four bands played largely instrumental-driven music and treated the vocals as just another instrument in the mix. Instead of placing the focus on a lead singer, the emphasis was on the band as a whole. Coming into the show, if you were a fan of one of the bands, you likely left as fan of at least one other. And your night probably ended at the merch table, just like mine.
