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Mysteriously, Ryan Lee sounds pretty good through the Midway's sketchy PA system. Possibly it's that he's singing with just a guitar; he doesn't have to crank the vocal mic up to impossibly distorted levels to be heard. And his guitar has a lovely, dirty tone to it that would sound good through almost anything. That raunchy guitar sound and his powerful, almost operatic vocals provide an excellent balance to his pretty, delicate, sad songs, all pain and poignancy. (I like, "I don't want my ego to know that I miss you.") Then, mid-set, he suddenly plays a happy song, called something like "Good Life." It's good to know he has that capability.
The Silver Lining do, alas, suffer from the PA system. This is a shame, because they appear to be excellent: a somewhat harder-edged neo-psychedelia, with slightly twangy guitars and dual lead singers, a melodic tenor and a wild, howling alto. I hear The Mamas And The Papas mentioned as a comparison, but it's a good bit more rocking than that. The harmonies are stellar, especially the three-part stuff when the bassist supplies light soprano backing vocals. The PA hurts the female lead singer the most; when she cuts loose and screams, it puts a dull, muddy distortion over her voice, and that's a real shame. I can't wait to see them somewhere else.
Lady of Spain also suffer from the PA system, but here it's more literal; they sound great, but Anna keeps getting shocked by her microphone. They, too, have the male / female dual lead singer configuration, but it's less overtly melodic, more modern-sounding, more dissonant, and altogether more ferocious. I like ferocious. Initially, I think they also have the melodic male / screaming female dichotomy going, but Tim gets a few good screams in late in the set. The songs are dark, brutal things, with piercing guitar leads over thick, crunchy rhythm and a lot of weird, dissonant chords. There is also a lot of feedback hum, which could be a problem but in fact sounds great in this context most of the time.
