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This Blue Holiday are a very talented four-piece from Connecticut. They are so rock solid and likeable that it's a shame I don't like their songs more. The problem I have with them is a certain simplicity of melody; the vocals and the guitar parts just don't ever surprise me. But the rhythm section is fluid and interesting, the guitars support the vocals well, and he's a really good singer, with a strong, clear, pleasing voice.
Taxpayer are working similar ground: melody-focused songs with fairly straightforward pop rhythms and structures and mostly strummy guitars. The singer's voice is a little more rough (but not unpleasantly so), but the big difference is just that the tunes grab me more. There's more melodic dynamism. The guitars are mixed a bit low for this set, so I can't really tell if they're kind of bland, or if there's more going on in there that I can't hear.
We duck out for a slice during the next band, and come back for The Nonfamous. This is one of their last shows with this (still fairly new) lineup, as half the band are moving to Maine at the end of the summer. This is frustrating to me, because I've been seeing "The Nonfamous" since it was just Ryan Lee playing most of these songs solo, and tonight it seems like the band has finally arrived, just in time to break up. Don't get me wrong—they've been good before, and anyway the focus in this band is really on Ryan's bizarre yet catchy tunes and his soaring, freakish voice. But this is the show where I feel they really gel as a band, and all the pieces are individually great and support each other. We can hear the harmonies pretty well, and Ryan's perhaps the only singer that Courtney Naliboff doesn't have to hold back to avoid overwhelming. And that's worth a lot right there.
