Put on the best music crawl I have ever been to. The weather was perfect and I won’t lie, I was outside of Art Bar almost all night and didn’t make it to any of the other venues.
I have seen almost all of the bands that I watched Saturday night before, but I did get to see a couple of new bands. My favorite being Venice is Sinking. Them being from Athens, I will compare them to another Athen’s band and really the band I know best R.E.M. Hold on though. Don’t think “Shiny Happy People” or “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” Venice is Sinking plays in the same vein as “Sweetness Follows” R.E.M. and the dreaminess of Automatic for the People. There are probably way better comparisons, but this is my website so I’ll tell you what I heard and thought of the entire time I listened to them. My favorite song of theirs is “Undecided” and it painfully reminds me of another song or band and I cannot place it. This stuff happens and it takes me weeks to place songs and bands.
For a couple of bands I saw I thought it to be their best performance that I have ever seen. Marry a Thief played with more energy and emotion than I have seen in the past. For a while they have been trying to find it and Saturday night I believe they took a big step in the right direction. These dudes have what it takes, now they are just fine tuning it all.
All Get Out played a great show as always, but it is hard to top their past performances. I have seen them atleast 6 times this year, and I have seen Nathan Hussey launch his guitar 10 feet in the air somehow missing Gordon’s head. I have almost had my face knocked off by the headstock of Mike’s bass at Scooters Lounge. I have seen Mel on his back kicking his guitar in the air and I have seen Gordon climb on everything in every venue he plays and throw his ride cymbal. These guys are the leaders of Southern Grunge and aren’t going to do anything in the next year except win over new fans and play shows. I know for a fact that Saturday night they made a couple of handfuls of new fans as I looked around and saw a lot of new faces in their crowd.
Saturday night was only my second time seeing This Machine Is Me, but their show really made a statement to the Columbia music scene. With a new EP coming out in two weeks, new merch and a new lineup, this band is well prepared to make its mark on the music scene. Some people say Paramore, some people sway to the Killers. They are both good comparisons in their own way. I’m going to go ahead and award them the most fashionable band in SC (1 point killers). Other than having a female singer I don’t really feel the Paramore comparisons (2 points Killers). Paramore did kick the door back open for original female front “women”. Sorry Avril, I don’t think you write your on songs. I draw a direct line to this. Although Jayna’s voice is a bit more sultry than Rachel Hadens. Note* I’m not comparing TMIM to That Dog, but to the song that Rachel did with Weezer for the The Good Life Australian Version EP. Remember when Weezer was incredible?
This Machine Is Me is only a manager and a break away from making it to the next level. They have all the tools to do it and the new recording sounds great. Come to their CD Release party on the 24th and see what I mean for yourself.
I’m so happy The Reverie got into music crawl. Their front man Marshall Brown is brilliant with melodies and controlling his falsetto. I know this because I have been fortunate enough to play and write some songs with him. This is one of the bands that played their best show ever Saturday night at Music Crawl. I have seen them at least 10 times over the years and the crowd that they had the opportunity to play for took their music and stage show to another level. Mitch was a beast on drums as always. Since Kyle Senn got his Moog their music has taken on another feel and has changed for the best. When is the new recording fellas?
The Decade held down their end of the deal representing the Powerpop/Punk Genre. In one year they had at least 10 fold the people they had last year at Music Crawl. We got to celebrate Jeffrey’s one year anniversary with The Decade and all that OJ Simpson mess. Looks like karma finally got to him. The dude just kept on taking things. The Decade are so fun and that is why I love them. Besides the fact that their songs are contagious and you can’t help but clap and sing along.
I got to catch a couple of songs of some other bands, but wasn’t able to get good positioning to hear everyone. A couple of my friends were raving over Daniel Machado and I was like yeah I know Guitar Show has always been great. Can’t wait for the show Nov 21. The Rise of Science was really good. I picked up their CD and have had the chance to listen to it a good bit. I’m trying not to forget anyone that I saw and if I didn’t get to see you sorry. I was sick and could barely talk. I just today started to get my voice back. I lost half of it yelling at The Bourbon Brothers Friday night at New Brookland, who should have been playing at Music Crawl the next day. Their Myspace doesn’t do their songs justice. They won battle of the bands at New Brookland for a reason. Their live show is a mix of booze, sweat and untamed energy. Well, since everyone didn’t get to see them at Music Crawl come check them out at 5 Points Pub on the 19th with Ponderosa. It will bring your soul back to music.
Attention bands: if you are good it should be a requirement that you play Music Crawl. It doesn’t do anyone in the music scene any good when you have a big band and you just sit at home or attend and don’t play. Suck in your little ego and play it. This isn’t directed to any band in particular and I think every band that needed to play it was there. It hasn’t always been that way in the past though and that is why I say what I do. And I say that for future reference of bands. : )
VIDEOS COMING SOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNN
(I left my camera cable at work so I couldn’t upload them yet)
