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This Blue Holiday have an interesting beginning to their set. The guitar sounds like he's just dicking around and sound checking, and then suddenly the rest of the band comes in and you can hear that it was the riff of a song. The guitars have a great fuzzy/crunchy sound, the rhythm section is solid, and his singing is good. I feel like they have everything but the songs. The melody lines just fail to catch my attention or stick with me.
I've seen Ryan Lee perform solo as The Nonfamous, playing most of the songs he does tonight, but here he has a bassist and a drummer with him. They're a brand new combo, and there are a few noticeable little bobbles, but they never get flustered by them. I love these new arrangements, because the fuller--and louder--sound of the full band permits Ryan to uncork some serious screaming distorted guitar magic. This is two different kinds of awesome: he's a real master of the serious screaming distorted guitar magic, and I could happily drink up a set of just the noises that he wrings from the guitar, plus all that rich sonic filth makes an great contrast for his weird, operatic voice. The harmonies that they sing don't really work for me, and I can't quite tell if they're supposed to sound the way they do, but the songs are strong and oddly catchy.
Ad Frank and the Fast Easy Women have been undergoing some lineup changes, like, the entire time I've known them. But tonight they have the same personnel as the last time I saw them, and there's a sense that maybe these are the real Fast Easy Women. They're really starting to gel as a group: the rhythm section (formerly the most stable part of the band, until Shayne moved away) is starting to have real rhythm section chemistry. The interplay between the guitar parts and the keyboard parts is more apparent tonight than ever before, and it's really good. And Pauline's voice blends surprisingly well with Ad's. Ad is in especially fine voice tonight, the songs are terrific, and it's possibly the best set I've ever heard from him. There are a lot of new songs, and I'm just amazed every time I hear a new Ad Frank song by his way with a melody. So beautiful and perfect, I feel amazed that I've never heard them before, like songs like these must be discovered rather than written. I am so looking forward to the next album. They also play a fine selection of older material, including "U-Hauls and Ryders," my favorite.
