Band of Horses was pretty damn good. I must say I was jaded by seeing MMJ the same week as I always regarded BoH as My Morning Jacket Lite. They were not as powerful or explosive as MMJ and lacked the overall stage presence and unpredictability a true rock show delivers, but they sounded great (so did Ben Bridwell’s voice) and moved through an impressive set list. When you see them live you realize how many good songs they have in only 3 albums. The songs they played from the new album Infinite Arms were delivered very polished and precise, including one of my favorites “Factory.” The new album is very pretty, almost too pretty. I described it as all pretty and no gritty, but live they had a little more “edge.” Another reason the Thursday night show didn’t stand out is because I was lucky enough to catch them at one of their early shows at The Social before the meatheads started showing up.
“General Specific”
“The First Song”
set of songs from It Still Moves through Evil Urges and sprinkled in 3 or 4 new songs. They exploded with ear-splitting volume on the opener, “One Big Holiday” and shook the foundations of the quaint little amphitheater. MMJ has the ability to move from serene to explosive on their albums and do so with even more force live. Jim James is the type of frontman that takes over the show with his voice and his guitar, making the attack more visceral. He howls and screams and snarls, all while shredding his axe, playing with distortion and effects, and brandishing the guitar boldly in the air or slinging it around madly. This is a musical rock ‘n roll frontman at his best – non-verbally declaring “this is my guitar, this is my dick, suck on it.”
As for the venue, the St Augustine Amphitheater is truly a hidden gem. It is old and mainly supports the elderly community in the area with plays and shows, but recently someone brilliant has had the idea to bring rock bands in. It is small (around 5,000 at the most) and intimate, yet twice as loud as anything at the lame Ford Amphitheater. The night was made better with easy entry, easy parking, a laid back staff, full liquor, decent beer, and easy exiting. It is close enough to the beach to get a consistent sea breeze moving though the place. MMJ played under a full moon and the slightest sprinkles of rain came at two different moments. The moisture held the fog from the fog machine lower and thicker, lingering on the stage and in the crowd. This worked with the lights and added to the some of the psychedelic jam outs. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band opened the show and joined MMJ on the encore for three songs including covers of New Orleans native Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Move on Up.” At times it seemed the breeze was choreographed with the music and James filled the air with an expansive howl, a gentle wind would rise up and blow through the crowd carrying thin wisps of rock fog and marijuana smoke into the night air.
Canadian music collective, Broken Social Scene have their 5th full-length release, Forgiveness Rock Record due out May 4th (leaked much earlier) and have honed and elevated their sound under the production direction of John McEntire. They have a revolving cast of talent to help flush out their giant sound. At any moment BSS can have as few as 6 members or as many as 790 (somewhere around there). Although the music is meant to be lush and grand, at times the “too many cooks” approach seemed to distract from the great song at the core of the composition. McEntire’s work on Forgiveness Rock Record seems to have blended the multi-tier talent pool into a more cohesive musical experience.
When The Big Pink debuted last year I would have said please gouge my eye with a tainted pickle fork if I have to hear another indie pop duo. You got the White Stripes and Black Keys on the garage rock side to a slew of bands on the indie side like The Sounds, The Kills, MGMT, Crystal Castles, 
The White Rabbits shot their “Percussion Gun” right in the face of an Orlando audience at The Social on Friday, the 9th of April. From what I gathered, the turnout for this show was smaller than their last cramped appearance, but the crowd here was dedicated Rabbit fans and not just indie buzz seekers. Here We Go Magic opened the show and I was surprised by the last third of their performance. It took on a bigger, more experimental shoegaze feel than the indie pop of the first portion.
This is to be the first installment in a series of entries for The Coolest Song Ever! … Right Now dedicated to The Elevator Drops – the best band you’ve never heard. It makes no sense to me that this band never enjoyed any commercial exposure at any level at all – ever. 