Hot Boogie Overload!

I had a pretty eventful week or so of shows, here’s the rundown:

The Sights – This was the first show I’ve been to at Bender’s, the newest club in Cowtown. It kind of set me in a bad mood, as the headliners didn’t hit the stage until 12:35 for a weeknight show – way too late. The Sights were just okay, they’ve changed their sound a bit. When I saw them a few years ago, they were a mod inflected power trio (check out their album We Got What We Want). Now they’ve done away with the bassist and have a guy playing organ instead. The songs are little more drawn out now, kind of an earthy early 70’s boogie feel. It wasn’t bad, but I certainly wasn’t overwhelmed. The local warm-up acts were Le Boom (a female fronted pop band who weren’t too bad) and the Constellations (who need to go back to the basement and practice for a year before playing out again). Overall, the evening wasn’t worth the sleep I missed out on. Even worse, I was way too tired to catch the acoustic in store by The Soundtrack of Our Lives the next afternoon. I had to go home and get a nap so that I wouldn’t miss the main event…

The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Another terrific performance from these Swedes, I’ve never seen them do a bad show. The best part about seeing TSOOL in Denvoid is the Swedish contingent that shows up. I’m not making this up – there is a group of people with Swedish accents who bring along a large flag of Sweden and run around with it and generally just go nuts. The first half of the band’s set was terrific, but the second half just exploded – the group went crazy onstage, the singer did a strange little skipping dance and ran around with the aforementioned Swedish flag, the keyboard stands collapsed, and I think the Swedish contingents’ collective blood alcohol content reached dangerous levels. The set drew heavily from their last two releases Behind the Music and Origin, Vol. 1 (screw the hipsters at Pitchfork, the new one is terrific!). My only complaint was that the vocals should have been a little louder. Afterwards, we were too buzzed from the show to go home, so we stopped in at the Atomic Cowboy for a few brews. The band showed up as well, and several of them milled about talking to their fans. An incredibly fun night, too bad they all can’t be this great! (The warm-up act was American Minor from West Virginia – more or less a modern take on good ol’ Southern fried rock. Not exactly my thing, but they were good at what they did – the li’l woman thought it was “cute” how they shook their long hair around when they played.)

I had a few days off, and then went out three nights in row:

The Gore Gore Girls – A pretty decent set from this Detroit band, despite the low turnout. Their sound is a mix of 60’s girl group vocals (Ronettes, Shangri-La’s) backed with classic Motor City rock n’ roll. It’s hard to hear the vocal melodies in the live setting, but it was still fun, plus I liked their white boots! I think more people were there to see The Reputation, a pretty cracking indie pop group who opened up. Apparently, the girl who leads them used to have a band called Sarge, and she was considered some sort of prodigy back then. She has a terrific voice, and she and her band played a very enjoyable set. I would’ve bought a CD if somebody had been working their merch table, oh well…

The BellRays – A good show from this California band, the first time I’ve seen them in a few years. I noticed more slow material in their set this time, which didn’t detract from the overall effect. It was still exhilarating; their soul and punk inflected rock n’ roll had most of the dorky white people in the room dancing, soul clapping, and having a great time. The openers were Von Iva from San Francisco, who played what could best be described as dance music. I don’t know how many guys really noticed what a great voice the singer had – they were too busy watching her strut around in her miniskirt and stilettos. I recognized the bassist, who used to be in Seattle’s 7 Year Bitch. They were enjoyable to watch, but I can’t imagine wanting to listen to one of their CD’s at home.

Ash – Me and my friend JT caught this terrific Irish band, the first time either one of us had seen them. They had originally been booked to open for trendy-buzz-band-of-the-minute The Bravery, who dropped off of the bill for some reason (a fashion shoot for SPIN magazine, perhaps?). The turnout for the show was small, at one point the singer did a head count of the crowd on the floor and then called out to the bar for 60 shots of whiskey! (Too bad the floor was all ages!) Instead of acting disappointed by the small crowd, Ash must have decided to win over each and every person in the audience by playing their hardest for 90 minutes. I think it worked; everybody appeared to be having a great time. Instead of feeling like an empty theater it felt like you were watching a band play in your living room – rather intimate. At one point they were taking requests from the audience – JT yelled for Jack Names the Planets and they gleefully launched into it, making his night (if the bar on the floor had been open, I bet he would’ve bought the band a round!). Other highlights: Kung Fu, Shining Light, Cherry Bomb, Girl From Mars, Walking Barefoot, and a cover of Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back In Town. We enjoyed openers Alaska while having a few cold brews in the balcony.

The Forty-Fives – After taking a night off, I caught this fun band from Atlanta. I had heard many good things, but have somehow managed to miss out on seeing them the many times they’ve come through town. I’m glad I finally caught them; they were a really good time. Kind of like the Sonics, but with a little more of a soulful Southern vibe. I’ll definitely try to be there the next time they play Denvoid. A local act called Grease Machine warmed up. Here is my brief review – replace “Grease” with “Crap.” Luckily, the mild weather allowed refuge on the back patio of the Larimer Lounge, where I met several cool people who I hung out with. (One of them sat down across from me and commented “You’ve been to every show I’ve been to in the last week.” Nice meeting you as well, Chris!)

A few more days off, and a Sunday spent at home enjoying “the blizzard of 2005.” After digging out:

The Secret Machines – Okay, this was a weird one, it was a free show put on by Jack Daniels. I first heard about it when we saw Jux County. The “Jack Daniels Girls” were there giving away merchandise, and they raffled off some free tickets for this concert. As I didn’t register, I didn’t get tickets. When I was at the Sights show, I overheard some hipster girl telling all of her friends that she had it on good authority that the Secret Machines had already cancelled; they were going to be “in New York shooting a video.” Still, the show was never dropped from the listings. Eventually, I entered to win a pair of tickets on the web. I received an email voucher a few days later saying I had won a pair of tickets, but it also advised me to get there early as the email didn’t “guarantee” admission. First come, first serve, I guess. Then we had the big snowstorm which closed down most of the city on the Sunday this show was scheduled –another email arrived advising me that the show would happen on Monday. Doors were at 8, music was scheduled for 9. I didn’t even get to the Gothic Theater (a beautiful old restored venue in the heart of Engleweed) until a few minutes before 9pm – I expected to encounter a line, or maybe be turned away (I saw the band a few months ago in Boulder, and they sold out the Fox Theater). I walked right up to the door, where the aforementioned Jack Daniels Girls waved me in. They didn’t even ask for my ticket, they just checked my ID and told me that there was free food upstairs. I was a bit surprised to find the Gothic only about 1/6th full. There was a ton of free pizza and chicken wings, too bad I was still full from dinner. Sure enough, I looked down on the stage and the Secret Machines drum set and huge light show was all set up. The Jack Daniels Girls were milling about, handing out free drumsticks and baseball hats (drumsticks? I wonder whose bright idea that was?). And the bar had specials on (what else?) Jack Daniels. Locals The Swayback opened – they’ve never done much for me the other times I’ve seen them, but I enjoyed them this time. Secret Machines played a decent show for the small crowd that was there, if not as long or as impressive as the last time I saw them. The whole vibe was really strange – you could tell a large portion of the people who were there had never heard of the band, they were just there because it was free (still, they all looked pretty hip, sporting Jack Daniels caps and waving drumsticks around, ha ha ha…). I’m still curious as to why more people didn’t show up – maybe due to the rescheduling? Perhaps the rumor that Secret Machines wouldn’t be playing? Maybe the hipsters deemed it “uncool” to attend an even sponsored by Jack Daniels? Hell, if the fine folks from Lynchburg want to put on a free show with a cool band, and feed me as well, I’m all for it. My finances take a hard enough hit due to live music as it is – let someone else foot the bill on occasion!

The next night I wanted to catch Japanese band D.M.B.Q., but when 10pm rolled around I could barely keep my eyes open. The li’l woman commented that the dark circles around my eyes were even bigger than usual. In fact, they had more or less taken over my entire face! So I stayed in, and have been catching up on my sleep since then. You can’t see them all…

Pass the insulin…

We had ourselves a double dose of Mootown indie pop this past weekend. On Friday, we caught Dressy Bessy at the Hi Dive. Unfortunately, the band was a little off that night – they were breaking in a new drummer, and trying out a whole bunch of new songs. Worst of all, vocalist Tammy Ealom was having problems with her vocals – instead of her usual slightly-off-key-but-charmingly-girlish tones, for most songs she was reduced to a rasp. It could be due to the cold and flu season, or maybe too many cigarettes, but hopefully it’s just a momentary setback. The band wasn’t bad, just not up to their usual standards. Still, the faithful danced and had themselves a geekin’ good time. I’m sorry I missed most of the openers Cowboy Curse. From what I heard they were pretty good, and played what must have been the first ever Breezy Porticos cover. This leads us to…

On Saturday we caught the Breezy Porticos at the Bluebird. The Breezies are one of my favorite acts in town; their sunshine pop always makes my day (track down their CD Keep It Crisp, the perfect soundtrack for morning coffee and the Sunday paper). It had been a while since I had last seen them, and it was extra nice to catch them on a big stage with great sound. They were opening for Jux County, who were playing a reunion/celebration/farewell show. Having been elsewhere throughout the 90’s, I missed out on the Jux phenomenon when they were one of the most popular acts in Denvoid. I did see them once in college, but the only thing I remembered was that they did a cover of Give It to the Soft Boys. (This struck me as strange at the time, doing another band’s “theme” song. It still does!) I thought Jux were pretty good, and they were giving out free CD’s (cleaning out their closets?) which was cool.

I considered going to Motorhead on Sunday, as I thought it’d be neat to see Lemmy dressed up as the Easter Bunny. Then I realized that I was probably imagining things due to not getting enough sleep Saturday night, and decided to skip it. Also, the bill was loaded up with three other bands I had no interest in seeing, so that helped me make up my mind. Maybe next time!

(Special thanks to Andy FalconYETI for inspiring the title of this entry, and for the comp.)