Index of Shows | Homepage | Upcoming Shows | Write to me
Tonight, I am distressed to learn, is Words For Snow's last Boston show with this bassist. He is excellent--they're all excellent--and I dearly hope that they decide to soldier on and find someone amazing to replace him. I also hope that he works hard on the album that they're supposedly recording before he moves away. For tonight, we get a virtuoso display of engaging melodies and wild, ambitious rhythms. The weird, frequently changing time signatures are, of course, what draw me to this band, but there's also a lot of really wonderful interplay between the two guitars, one mostly taking high parts and the other staying lower, so that we can really hear what both of them are doing. The last song is one I'm familiar with from a recording of theirs, and it's even kinda catchy!
Din are next, and they're like a completely different band than the other time I saw them. (They do have a different drummer.) I remember them being somewhat simple and heavy, so where did all this tunefulness come from? The songs are catchy and beautifully sung; the closest touchstone I can come up with is Luna. The band plays with several different configurations, switching in keyboards, and three different members play bass on various songs. I like the two-guitar configuration best, for the great leads, with beautiful tone and smoking wah-wah action, but there's also a song late in the set with a gorgeous piano part. Several of these songs are new, and I love them; I heartily approve of this band's vector.
The Capsules are from Kansas. They are a three-piece, with a singer/guitarist, a drummer who wears headphones and triggers some prerecorded atmospherics, and a bassist who's almost playing lead bass: the guitar is mostly doing rhythm, while the bassist plays around a lot with effects and tone variations. The music is all very slow and gentle and pretty and shoegazing. I love the singer's voice, and the vocal melodies are all really pretty and fun, but it's hard to imagine getting excited about this band. Still, she has a great stage presence, (very Midwestern, somehow, friendly and aw-shucks grateful for our attention and applause) and the songs are pretty.
Alchemilla are up last. I cannot get enough of their singer; she has a phenomenal voice, and she just WAILS! A little bit jazzy, a little bit bluesy, a little bit rootsy, and a whole lotta rock. There are also three guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer, all are good, and all pretty much fade into the background when she sings. When she's not singing, the guitar solos can get a little bit noodly and jam-band-y for my tastes, but overall the feel is high-energy roots rock, and she's usually singing. Bending notes, dancing around the melody, howling and growling and kicking my ass.
