Black and White Years
Saturday I headed down to Emo's Lounge. I got there too late for The Boxing Lesson, but that's OK since I've seen them before. Pretty Baby from Fort Worth was next. Two guys on guitar and drums, and "Pretty Baby" on vocals (and occasionally floor tom). Their entire set was sequenced with synth and bass synth. I guess there's some benefit to being able to say "our set is exactly 45 minutes 5 seconds long" (or whatever), but there's definitely some spontaneity lost when even the space between songs are on the meter. This may have been the first time I witnessed a mid-set costume change as Pretty Baby changed from a belly-dancer type outfit of a sparkly bra and long skirt to a leather top and bottom. Sorry guys, she put the top on over the bra and the bottom was revealed by taking off the skirt. It was amusing to see all the girls in the audience react to her constant bra adjustment. She was quite animated with lots of body movement and hand gestures. The music was alright having a kinda disco-ish feel with lots of syncopated open hi-hat. This show was all about watching her though. Quite entertaining.
The Black and White Years set was all about the audience. I didn't get down into what I've nicknamed "the moat" (between the stage and a raised bar area) but I'm glad I did. Finally a show where tons of people were dancing! They also used a lot of sequenced parts but I was less annoyed because the parts were more interesting, yet less essential. Pretty Baby had all their bass stuff sequenced and you really need a live bass part to keep the feel. This band also had a disco-ish kind of beat going with the bass drum thumping on every beat, the hi-hat thing, and claps triggered by the drummer. I should really stay away from using the word disco to describe the feel, to avoid any negative connotations. Actually, the syncopated guitar gave it kind of a ska feel too, the type of music that I always got a good workout dancing to in the 90's.
The lead guitar player was awesome and for awhile I thought he might go unnoticed since he was standing near the end of the stage and didn't have any lights on him. After awhile I realized this wasn't the case--he practically had his own fan section in front of him. Also, the lead singer gave him props during the set, and in the album credits. This guy is the band's MVP since he also does the keyboard parts, playing the Juno live on one song. I think he also planned to play the Nord but didn't for whatever reason. The drummer had this crazy look of concentration on his face the whole set. I guess he had a lot to concentrate on with not only the real drums, but electronic drums to play as well.
Back to the awesome audience. It was clear they were all fans because it seemed like they knew the words to every song, and even had specific movements for particular parts of songs. They were requesting songs throughout, and like I said earlier were dancing the whole time. They (I should say we!) also prompted a real, honest encore--the kind where the band wasn't necessarily planning for one, and where the venue had to oblige or the fans would tear the place apart. I should also mention that the place was not comfortable at all--hot and humid, but somehow managed to feel good anyway. I know I was thinking that since I'm sweating anyway, I might as well jump around a lot. I guess everyone else thought so, too!
The Black and White Years set was all about the audience. I didn't get down into what I've nicknamed "the moat" (between the stage and a raised bar area) but I'm glad I did. Finally a show where tons of people were dancing! They also used a lot of sequenced parts but I was less annoyed because the parts were more interesting, yet less essential. Pretty Baby had all their bass stuff sequenced and you really need a live bass part to keep the feel. This band also had a disco-ish kind of beat going with the bass drum thumping on every beat, the hi-hat thing, and claps triggered by the drummer. I should really stay away from using the word disco to describe the feel, to avoid any negative connotations. Actually, the syncopated guitar gave it kind of a ska feel too, the type of music that I always got a good workout dancing to in the 90's.
The lead guitar player was awesome and for awhile I thought he might go unnoticed since he was standing near the end of the stage and didn't have any lights on him. After awhile I realized this wasn't the case--he practically had his own fan section in front of him. Also, the lead singer gave him props during the set, and in the album credits. This guy is the band's MVP since he also does the keyboard parts, playing the Juno live on one song. I think he also planned to play the Nord but didn't for whatever reason. The drummer had this crazy look of concentration on his face the whole set. I guess he had a lot to concentrate on with not only the real drums, but electronic drums to play as well.
Back to the awesome audience. It was clear they were all fans because it seemed like they knew the words to every song, and even had specific movements for particular parts of songs. They were requesting songs throughout, and like I said earlier were dancing the whole time. They (I should say we!) also prompted a real, honest encore--the kind where the band wasn't necessarily planning for one, and where the venue had to oblige or the fans would tear the place apart. I should also mention that the place was not comfortable at all--hot and humid, but somehow managed to feel good anyway. I know I was thinking that since I'm sweating anyway, I might as well jump around a lot. I guess everyone else thought so, too!
Labels: music
posted by PlaysByEar at 1:00 PM
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