The Bright Light Social Hour stormed The Social in Orlando and tore it up much like they did on their previous visit. Their last show had 80-100 people and I predicted that the next one would sell out. This one didn’t quite sell out but there was easily double the attendance.
These guys bring the heat, infusing funk, blues, southern and psychedelic rock, and just enough pop to make them palatable to those outside the jam or rock crowd. Their self-described Future Southern-Fried Deep Soul packs a punch. Check out the SubAp! concert review of the New Year’s Eve show in Tampa
Silversun Pickups swirled quietly into town last night and put on a hell of a show despite lackluster audience attendance. Touring behind a modest departure in Neck of the Woods I expected a larger audience as this record lets the new Smashing Pumpkins (as I like to call them) stretch their legs a little bit and lean even more on the sonic wizardry of Joe Lester. They were also minus a super preggers Nikki Monninger. Filling in for her was vivacious indie super-cutie, Sarah Negahdari.
I’m pretty hard on 2-man bands and even harder on laptop bands. The White Stripes are the quintessential 2-piece garage rockers with a superior singer / songwriter / musician at the helm. They write great songs and can rock small venues, but despite their prowess (well, Jack’s anyway) they can be really weak at festivals and large theaters. Same for the Black Keys and just about anybody else in that boat (canoe). Vancouver’s Japandroids like volume and embrace the loud, spacey shoegaze, Pumpkin-style guitar, which helps them out a great deal. Touring behind one of the best albums of 2012 doesn’t hurt either. They rocked The Social on Tuesday, but I fear I wouldn’t want to see them at a larger venue as some of the power of their tunes would be lost in a bigger space without the dynamics of more musicians.
I didn’t know much about Future Islands before this show so I was surprised to hear the 80s influenced synth pop band have a singer that floated somewhere between Morissey and Meatloaf with sprinkles of death metal snarls worthy of Glen Benton. It was even more surprising to see him strut and pantomime in sensible shoes, high-waist pants, and fitted muscle T. This was all so weird and so charming. Then it hit me. He’s goin’ for a sort of what-if-young-Brando-fronted-an-indie-band thing. The passionate, poetic lyrics served with a dose method acting further underscored that Samuel Herring is a dead ringer for Marlon Brando (somewhere between young Brando and older pre-fat Marlon). I was reminded that I was at an indie show when I leaned over to one of the younger girls in the group and said, “He’s going for a young Brando thing” and she looked befuddled. “You know, Marlon Brando. On the Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire, motherfucking Apocalypse Now?!!!!! No? What the fuck? Really? Fuck off.” He was in his prime 20 years before I was born and did his last great film when I was like 4-years old so there’s no excuse not to know who he is if you don’t live in a fucking convent, which probably has high-speed internet anyway. What is it with young people? They are so quick to remind you how young they are and that they couldn’t know who that is. You have the fucking internet you fucking idiots! You should know more at 20 than I do now. Fuck!
I was about half way through Sharon’s opening song before I realized she wasn’t Sarah Jaffe. I’m not sure how I got their latest releases completely confused, but I did. It was hard to peel myself away from football and a new episode of Walking Dead to attend a show I thought might be a folky estrogen fest, but for the third or fourth time in recent history I was caught completely off guard by a powerful performance that I thought would be a snoozer act. Sharon charmed her way through an expertly paced set with a coy smile and playful banter. First, I was surprised at how un-power-dike she was. I was really expecting a scruffy Lillith Fair type. Next, at how young she is or appears to be. It was startling how much wisdom and emotion pours out of the fingers and vocal chords of a such a young lady. The band was tight and the songs ranged from tender to powerful. She battled with the thudding hip hop beats next door working in cute little dance moves as she tuned her guitar. She played the omnichord, the harmonium (pictured above), drank shots, and all-in-all walloped her first Orlando audience.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is one of my favorite bands of recent years. From their DIY beginnings to their more recent rock ‘n roll drama, Alec Ounsworth’s David Byrne meets Dylan vocals in front of their grooving indie pop possesses a certain allure for me. Despite their line-up changes they took the stage at Jannus Landing in St. Petersburg and sounded great working through a setlist that touched every album while avoiding some of their bigger hits.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes played to an eager audience just as the Gulf skies opened up on one of the coolest venues in Florida. The neo-hippy cult with a penchant for powerful singalongs did not disappoint. They could be compared to the Polyphonic Spree (I guess), but their members all have valid contributions to the music and their songs are better.
With M83 still touring on their breakthrough double album, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming, and a year long assault by singles like “Steve McQueen” and the ubiquitous “Midnight City” I’ll admit I wasn’t giddy like a school girl to see the band – especially since I saw M83 at the Beacham last November. So I brought my 12 year-old niece to the show and she was totally stoked.
See the full review on Tampa’s music blog, Suburban Apologist
Built to Spill‘s sound always reminded me of Dinosaur Jr. meets Modest Mouse with a propensity to use crushing guitar interspersed with jangly riffs and a drunken, sad humanist perspective. They also have the same northwestern vibe that MM does with a low-fi approach to live shows that puts an emphasis wholly on the musical performance and no matter the quality of the show it is always riddled with long pauses, self tuning of guitars, and constant muttering complaints about the sound and lighting. It’s the same “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that has the band looking like they rolled out of bed in their clothes with a Sunday morning hangover and took the stage.
Last night at The Social was no exception. In fact the lighting and sound dissatisfaction hit epic proportions as the band warmed up and settled into a short-ish but nicely mixed set. The lights lacked any dynamics – either being off or on. When the lights were on the band complained about the brightness. Then the lights were turned off. After two songs in near darkness BTS was like, “WTF?” It seemed like a passive-aggressive revenge being exacted on the band for an unknown cause. Constant calls from various band members to adjust volume and lighting led to some jabs about the competency of the lighting and sound techs. At one point Doug Martsch tried to find an audience member that could work the lights.
Does anyone know what happened here? Let me know below.
Robbed of the support given by good lighting the band thundered through their setlist and ended their first set with a rousing “Carry the Zero.” A 3-song encore was punctuated by a soaring 20-minute space jam of “Broken Chairs.”
Refused was a short-lived Swedish band of incredible talent. Their penchant for blending scream-o punk with heavy metal and dashes of electronica and alt rock was progressive and unmatched in the mid to late 90s. Fourteen years after calling it quits in the midst of a nightmarish tour for The Shape of Punk to Come, the band stood onstage in the city where they ended it all. It was prior to their 1998 gig in Atlanta that they decided to disband and declared, “Refused Are Fucking Dead.”
The irony was staggering as they kicked off the brief US leg of their reunion tour and so was the performance. Refused absolutely killed. Music that relies heavily on the combination of emotional intensity and machine-like precision was firing on all cylinders. Refused was loud. Singer, Dennis Lyxzen, – dressed to the nines – screamed and howled like Iggy Pop and strutted like Mick Jagger. Drummer, David Sandstrom, is a god-dammed force of nature and drove the show with a punk-y jazz-metal brilliance. The band was tight although the set was short at one hour and fifteen minutes, but hey – what more do you want from a bunch of communists?
Concert Video from the Refused Show:
Possibly my favorite song, “Hook, Line, and Sinker”:
Aaron’s Amphitheater formerly Hi-Fi Buys, formerly Lakewood hosted some sort of metal festival, but alls I knows is Slayer, Anthrax and Motorhead played.
Anthrax again got a much lower slot on the totem pole than deserved. This is Anthrax with fucking Belladonna! They headlined the smaller Jagermeister stage and summarily kicked ass with the less than generous 40 minute set they were given.
Motorhead is, well, fucking Motorhead and it was cool to see Lemmy scream up into the high perch of his signature mic stand.
SLAYER! Have you ever noticed how no one can just say “Slayer.” It’s always “SLAYER!!” And more often its, “FUCKING SLAYER!!” There is a reason these grandaddy’s of metal evoke such a strong response. They eviscerate. Even without Jeff Hanneman – the ying to Kerry King’s yang – they were fast, precise, and raging stealing the show as they always do. Hanneman, who is recovering from a spider bite that caused a rare flesh eating condition called necrotising fasciitis, which almost resulted in the amputation of his hand, was replaced by Exodus guitarist, Gary Holt. How fucking metal is that? A flesh eating disease that eats the skin, muscle, and fat from the inside and caused by a spider bite! Look for the song, “Spiderbite” on Slayer’s new album, Necrotising Fasciitis this Fall.
The Bright Light Social Hour stormed The Social in Orlando and tore it up much like they did on their previous visit. Their last show had 80-100 people and I predicted that the next one would sell out. This one didn’t quite sell out but there was easily double the attendance.
