Monday, March 9, 2009

The Whigs, Dead Confederate, and Trances Arc

Just got back from the show at The Basement, and it was so much fun. I really dug all three bands sets which is kind of rare. I'm not that snobby really, it's just out of three bands one of them is bound to suck. They didn't.

Even though Trances Arc have one of the worst names going in Indie Rock, they were so much better than the tracks I found on line led me to believe they would be. They were a really solid live band, and it seems like they might be more at home on the stage as opposed to the studio. The same thing could be said of Dead Confederate.

DC has been touring on their album for a while now. They've done some TV (Conan) and I think they even got mentioned as one of Rolling Stone's Ten Bands to Watch (or some shit like that). They are a throwback to so much of the music I love. Their grunge hooks and garbled lyrics would get drowned in My Bloody Valentine swells and Slowdive-like phaser walls. Lots of other comparisons to bands like Nirvana or Alt-Country outfits are out there, but to me they sounded drenched in old school shoegaze. At one point, their guitarist was making scratching noises that immediately made me think of Sonic Youth, and then they went into a cover of what I think is probably my favorite song of all time, SY's Theresa's Sound World. It wasn't as good as watching Sonic Youth do it, but if they're not in town you could do worse than Dead Confederate.

Finally, The Whigs hit the stage. The Whigs are a three piece that sound twice their size. A great deal of their sound's size has to be with their drummer Julian Dorio. There were times tonight that I saw his hands come back over his shoulders and he would twist his body to get more leverage on the stick to bring it down as hard as he could. I don't think I've ever seen anyone hit like him live. When they played "Right Hand on My Heart" a (a song I've heard a little too often) and the crescendos built to the feedback freakout ending I had chills. So damn good.

Well, that's it for me. I'm supposed to be up in less than four hours to go to work. For those of you who just check in from time to time, I'm sorry this has been so music heavy lately. I'll get back to my boring cubicle life soon.

Hugs and Kisses,

Stephen

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