Show Review: The P.O. Show

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, my day job threw a benefit concert for Covenant House Pennsylvania, a children's homeless shelter in North Philly. The show started off with the musical complexities of guerrilla sticker warriors Out of the Beardspace, a prog rock outfit featuring the Berklee College of Music dropout talents of our very own Sam Gutman on keys, as well as shifting time signatures, lineup shifts, and the occasional saxophone solo. The fact that they groove a bit harder than most prog I've heard helped get the party going, and the band members were quite enthusiastic about raging on with the other acts, extreme talent not translating into extreme arrogance in this particular instance.

As you may remember, I like Lost in Company quite a bit, and not just because our own Ryan Reese plays a mean guitar. It's not too often that a band remembers the dance music origins of rock'n'roll without overusing synthesizers, and when it does the results are not often this delectable. Frontman Chris Johnson has a powerful voice, fully capable of the whispers-to-wails dynamics called for by their soulful sound. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Little Bar makes use of the same Behringer powered speakers as I do, and that they conveyed LiC's set at least as well as the more expensive setup at Hard Rock.

Banned Books is buzzing quite a bit now, and with good reason. Their spastic, overdriven beats shift tempos almost as often as those of Out of the Beardspace, while remaining consistently rhythmic enough to accompany some dope freestyle raps from our resident rappists Mikey Mo, Trizz, and La Chameleon before Banned Books frontman and our coworker Zane. As they moved into their own material, the contrast between Zane's laid back, frequently falsetto vocals and the gritty instrumentation competed for attention with the propulsive impact of the sheer noise level they were putting out. With such a compelling live show, it is no wonder they are currently leading The Deli's Philadelphia poll for the breakout artist of 2011. [vote here]

By the time resident DJ Aaron Ruxbin took over for one of his usual all-vinyl sets at the regular rock weekly, we had raised $300 for Covenant House, and had ourselves an excellent time doing it.

Show Review: Lost in Company

I finally got around to seeing Lost in Company when they opened for JaE and Darienne Rose at the Hard Rock Cafe. After some brief protestations from one table, our group settled in comfortably dancing immediately in front of the stage. Funky originals mixed well with excellent covers of notables like Teddy Pendergrass for a sexy, soulful sound that left me thirsting for more. Immediately after their set we all left to try and catch mass stickering gurus Out of the Beardspace at a house party west of Temple campus, but were unfortunately unsuccessful and missed out on both shows. Luckily we'll be having both Lost in Company and Out of the Beardspace (as well as Banned Books) at a benefit for Saving Grace Orphanage at Little Bar on MLK Day.

Show Review: Wildebeast and Turning Violet Violet

There are two ways to arrange straightforward pop songs and maintain underground credibility. The first could most easily be called the Nirvana method: submerge the vocals in the mix and crank up the distortion to make it all sound more alienated. The second is to use extreme dynamics and shifting beat patterns to make a sort of audio collage that sounds unlike a traditional verse-chorus structure even if there is one. Judging by artists I've reviewed (Brand New, mewithoutYou, Colour Revolt, etc.) it should be clear that I prefer the latter. Last night I journeyed to Cedar Street Studios in Port Richmond to see Wildebeast open for Last Full Measure at Cedar Street's second Saturday monthly. I ended up leaving before the headliners due to public transportation schedules, but was impressed by both Wildebeast and Turning Violet Violet as purveyors of subverted pop music primarily differentiated by the gender of their frontperson and the variety of pop on which their compositions are based.

South Jersey's Wildebeast works with an arena rock palette both lyrically and in the basic guitar/bass/drums/keys setup, an impression emphasized by frontman Sam Morales' sardonic take on rock star swagger. The firm planting of his tongue in cheek, occasional digressions into epic post-rock breakdowns, and bassist Adam Catell's arrival straight from work at Philly Pretzel Factory complete with uniform ensured a safe distance from the odd sincerity/commercialism dynamic of the arena and the near-flawless sound quality provided by performing in a professional recording studio kept Nirvana away. This show has me hoping Wildebeast has a longer and more extensively recorded run than sideman Chris Small's previous work in Troubador.

Turning Violet Violet stays far away from the arena, working with the varied instrumentation of chamber pop and mixing it up with dance grooves rather than post-rock theatrics. A healthy dose of clarinet and violin can help any local band stand out from the rest, and the technicians at Cedar Street allowed both to shine. This studio has put some serious effort into developing the local music scene, and hopefully I'll be back there again soon, probably to see Lost in Company since they were stuck working doors and merch on this one.