Last Thursday - Downtown San Jose
Finally I'm getting around to writing about my trip before I forget it. I got back late last night and had band practice after work today, so I still haven't caught a break yet. I'm hoping I don't collapse tomorrow night and am able to get dowwntown for some Austin music!
Last Thursday I made it out of Santa Clara and walked to downtown San Jose. I had some wings and watched the last period of the Sharks game, which was going on at the HP Pavilion less than a mile away. It was a lot of fun watching it with the hometown fans, and the Sharks won. I decided I would try to get to a game before leaving CA, but it turns out they weren't playing in town again until last night.
After that, I went to Johnny V's nearby. This place features a lot of local music, which I like to see. Unfortunately for the bands, I think I was one of only two or three people there that wasn't a member of one of the three bands playing that night. The place is small, and the stage isn't ideal. It's less than a foot high which is no big deal, but it is square and in a corner which results in the drums getting obscured by everything else (amps!) that are placed in front of them. The first band was Stella Royale from San Francisco. Three guys on bass, guitar, and drums, and a girl on trumpet, tambourine, and french horn. You know I love unique instruments so I enjoyed this band. There were several times where the electric guitar and trumpet were playing solos in unison, which was interesting sounding with each note being slightly in tune then out of tune between the instruments. Later on they played solos in harmony which was just as interesting sounding. I have in my notes that they had a song sounding similar to "If You Could Only See" by Tonic, but I can't remember really what their song sounded like. However, I still have a riff from a song stuck in my head from one of their last songs, which for some reason reminded me of Devo but wasn't a copy of any of their songs. After a few days of having it stuck in my head I tried to find it online, but didn't have any luck. I think I'm going to have to write them so I can get a recording. Also worth noting is the guitar player playing slide guitar against the microphone stand. It's probably not that original, but I can't remember ever seeing anyone doing that before, so it's original enough to me!
I didn't catch the name of the second band. Their drummer was even more obscured by amplifiers. I couldn't see him or his drumset at all except for one cymbal. The lead singer looked like Michael Cera from Superbad. He played in front of the stage instead of on it. It's not like there wasn't plenty of space for them to expand. They were more animated than the first band, but I didn't like their music quite as much. Both the guitar player and bass player had what I'm calling "incremental" pedal boards, i.e. it seemed to me that they bought pedals individually over a long period of time and ended up with this big contraption all chained together. Not judging, in fact I think it is probably cooler looking and maybe sounding then getting an all in one effects deal like I have. They were echoey in a U2 kind of way, which was alright. Their music got better near the end of the set.
The last band was Callow. Maybe I wasn't paying attention earlier, but they were the only ones with CD's for distribution (free!) so I got one. I remember listening to some music off their myspace page before going downtown and being a little put off by the leader singer's vocals, but I have since gotten used to it and now think his voice is one of their assets due to its uniqueness. I was impressed by the lead singers deliberate guitar playing technique. The drummer impressed me more though. For some reason his fills caught my attention more than most do. We got them to play an encore, which was almost silly since the other bands had cleared out and the audience consisted of me, the bartender, the sound guy, and maybe two other customers. I felt bad that there weren't more people there, but I did my part! I talked to the bass player after the show about the usual stuff, music, Austin, etc. I liked their music but haven't had the chance to listen to their CD more than once since.
Last Thursday I made it out of Santa Clara and walked to downtown San Jose. I had some wings and watched the last period of the Sharks game, which was going on at the HP Pavilion less than a mile away. It was a lot of fun watching it with the hometown fans, and the Sharks won. I decided I would try to get to a game before leaving CA, but it turns out they weren't playing in town again until last night.
After that, I went to Johnny V's nearby. This place features a lot of local music, which I like to see. Unfortunately for the bands, I think I was one of only two or three people there that wasn't a member of one of the three bands playing that night. The place is small, and the stage isn't ideal. It's less than a foot high which is no big deal, but it is square and in a corner which results in the drums getting obscured by everything else (amps!) that are placed in front of them. The first band was Stella Royale from San Francisco. Three guys on bass, guitar, and drums, and a girl on trumpet, tambourine, and french horn. You know I love unique instruments so I enjoyed this band. There were several times where the electric guitar and trumpet were playing solos in unison, which was interesting sounding with each note being slightly in tune then out of tune between the instruments. Later on they played solos in harmony which was just as interesting sounding. I have in my notes that they had a song sounding similar to "If You Could Only See" by Tonic, but I can't remember really what their song sounded like. However, I still have a riff from a song stuck in my head from one of their last songs, which for some reason reminded me of Devo but wasn't a copy of any of their songs. After a few days of having it stuck in my head I tried to find it online, but didn't have any luck. I think I'm going to have to write them so I can get a recording. Also worth noting is the guitar player playing slide guitar against the microphone stand. It's probably not that original, but I can't remember ever seeing anyone doing that before, so it's original enough to me!
I didn't catch the name of the second band. Their drummer was even more obscured by amplifiers. I couldn't see him or his drumset at all except for one cymbal. The lead singer looked like Michael Cera from Superbad. He played in front of the stage instead of on it. It's not like there wasn't plenty of space for them to expand. They were more animated than the first band, but I didn't like their music quite as much. Both the guitar player and bass player had what I'm calling "incremental" pedal boards, i.e. it seemed to me that they bought pedals individually over a long period of time and ended up with this big contraption all chained together. Not judging, in fact I think it is probably cooler looking and maybe sounding then getting an all in one effects deal like I have. They were echoey in a U2 kind of way, which was alright. Their music got better near the end of the set.
The last band was Callow. Maybe I wasn't paying attention earlier, but they were the only ones with CD's for distribution (free!) so I got one. I remember listening to some music off their myspace page before going downtown and being a little put off by the leader singer's vocals, but I have since gotten used to it and now think his voice is one of their assets due to its uniqueness. I was impressed by the lead singers deliberate guitar playing technique. The drummer impressed me more though. For some reason his fills caught my attention more than most do. We got them to play an encore, which was almost silly since the other bands had cleared out and the audience consisted of me, the bartender, the sound guy, and maybe two other customers. I felt bad that there weren't more people there, but I did my part! I talked to the bass player after the show about the usual stuff, music, Austin, etc. I liked their music but haven't had the chance to listen to their CD more than once since.
Labels: music
posted by PlaysByEar at 12:28 AM
1 Comments:
It's not yet 9am, and I've already read 2 references this morning to "Michael Cera from Superbad." Didn't anyone else watch Arrested Development?
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