I have never seen Chain Reaction in Anaheim so empty than June 6, 2008. All night a few fans and friends for each band would come, stay for the set, and leave right after. My friend and I were the only ones there all night. I guess that’s what happens at “indie” shows. That said, instead of littering this review with the phrase “for an indie band” I’m just going to make a blanket statement that this phrase applies to the entire review.
When I showed up, Hyacinth was on stage – a four piece indie band from Long Beach, California with a girl named Harvey as vocals. Coming from the lead mic was a soothing alto with a clean melody and the lyrics were profound, from what I could tell. (Chain Reaction has never been a place to showcase vocals very well). The guitars produced intertwining ambient melodies (sometimes void of a drum beat). Somehow I had the impression that the band and the vocals could have both benefited by the loss of the other. Harvey seemed like she belonged in a band centered around her vocals where the audience could hear her subtle vibrato and sultry swank and the band could use vocals that could fade into the background. All in all though, they were my favorite of the night…it mostly went downhill from here.
Lemon Drop Kick came up next and I was already worried before they played a note. Their lead was a Japanese girl covered in scull clothing with her hair-black and blonde-piled on her head like a make-shift beehive. I tried to keep an open mind but for the first 15 minutes of the set all I could do is stare with my mouth open and try to figure out if they were speaking English. I concluded that they weren’t. I have to hand it to her though, her voice was relatively controlled and she was a great performer on stage. The band however was messy and unimpressive with entirely too many guitar solos.
Towards the end of the set, they did a No Doubt cover, which they seemed to perform better than their own music. When they finished I was still severely confused but slightly enlightened when I listened to the Warped Tour ’08 compilation yesterday. Apparently there is an audience for this sound since they sound a lot like the band ORESKABAND and ORESKABAND is on the entire Warped Tour this year. Maybe I’m wrong and they’re actually good?
Now The Sweet Hello… they’re just obnoxious. Is this a good reason to dismiss relatively talented musicians? I think so. The entire time I was so off put their annoyingness (I made this word up) that I couldn’t even focus on their music. This is besides the fact that their brash and inharmonious vocals were making my ears mad at me. These guys basically exemplify the kids everyone hates in high school (except for the skanky cheerleaders/dance squad girls, who were in the audience shaking their bare backs and size 0 booties). The only difference was that they learned how to play instruments and make fools of themselves on stage.
All of my criticism is probably overshadowing the fact that I thought they were pretty good musicians and their brand of dance indie rock was not entirely cliché… but that was hard to focus in on. However, I did notice that their drummer was particularly talented. Hurray! I said something nice!
31Knots was a three-piece from Portland and another shining light in the grayness of the night’s line up. They were exciting and inventive – vocals were smooth as honey, expressive and extremely well controlled. The guitar and bass intertwined in light and dancing melodies and the drums were forceful and demanding. My favorite of the songs they performed was “ManBecomeMe” which you can check out on their Myspace. I spent their entire set thinking “I’m glad I stayed for the headliner” before realizing that we still had one more band…
Joan of Arc. They had none of these good qualities that I just lavished 31Knots with. They weren’t inventive, entertaining, or attention-grabbing. They weren’t even memorable. I’m also pretty sure that their singer was completely out of it. About 3 songs into their set I realized I hadn’t heard a single note and I had been staring at the stickers on the wall. With no hope of the set improving, I left.
*all photos are from thei respective band’s myspace
