Sunday, October 7, 2007

Concert Review: Rock Lottery 09

By Erin Rice

Flickr account - Carlos Melgoza

The Sacred Hat

At 10 a.m., early by most musician's standards, Rock Lottery 09 launched to coffee and homemade breakfast at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton. In typical fashion, the "Sacred Hat" was brought out and the names of the five drummers selected for this year were dropped. After picking the names out at random to establish an order, the drummers then blindly selected their remaining bandmates from the hat and the event was off and running. With fewer than 12 hours ticking away, the five newly formed bands convened for the remainder of the day to compose between three and five songs, of which only one could be a cover song. By 9 p.m. all five bands returned to Dan's Silverleaf to perform in front of a packed house of DFW live music regulars, presenting the following show:

Kate Mackley

Craptist Generals

The Craptist Generals

• Ace McNeely - Little Big Horn, Grant Jones and HPGL
• Mike Melendi - The Skin Trade, jetscreamer
• John Clardy - Fishboy, LAZER
• Julie McKendrick - Christian! Teenage Runaway
• Michael Seman - Shiny Around The Edges

The first group of the night helped set the pace for the evening's events. The Craptist Generals opening song had an ambient metal sound, with Seman repeating what sounded like "Bang, Bang" at certain intervals, and McKendrick screaming the other vocals. The song then broke down into a more wild display of McKendrick's vocals over a trash punk rhythm. Breaking somewhat from the first, the second song had more of a southern punk touch, while the third song slowed it down a bit, featuring discordant instrumentation and haunting repetitive lyrics. Finally, the band began a somewhat awkward, staged conversation about whether it was time to party, which of course broke into George Thorogood-esque bluesy, southern rock song detailing the times at which the audience should boogy or party. Several band members switched it up among bass and guitar (and Seman's tambourine) to take on different roles for different tunes, which led to the eclectic mix they presented over the four-song set.

Kate Mackley

Costner Shyborg

Costner Shyborg

• Guitar George - High School Caesar, Big Daddy Alright
• Tim Ruble - The Happy Bullets
• Matthew Burgess - Eat Avery's Bones
• Don Feagin - The Theater Fire
• Jeremy Johnson - Mission Giant, TELTHON

Admittedly, a mistake in timing to check out the mini-street festival taking place on Oak Street between Locust and Elm, led to missing most of Costner Shyborg's set. However, the last song of the set had more of an indie, experimental sound with slightly higher-pitched, slightly nasaly male vocals.

Kate Mackley

VIETN.A.M.B.L.A.

VIETN.A.M.B.L.A.

• Tony Wann - Record Hop, Saboteur
• Ian Johnson - Hogpig, Boy Division
• Shane English - Undoing of David Wright, Ghosthustler
• Chad DeAtley - Dovehunter
• Ryan Fitzgerald - The Polyphonic Spree

The opening song of VIETN.A.M.B.L.A.'s set was a purely instrumental piece, that started out with a sort of horror punk sound but settled into more of an epic sounding classic rock inspired piece, featuring two basses, a rhythm guitar, and the punctuated wailing of the second guitar, and of course drums. The second song took the classic rock feel a bit further, even throwing into the lyrics what sounded like "Vietnam," perhaps further setting that classic tone. While the first two songs had a more serious tone and sounded more like what you would expect to hear of a band given far more than one day to compose, the second half of the set evolved into a Rock Lottery tribute of bands who played in years past ("All hail Rock Lottery" followed by Shane English mentioning all the bands of previous years, only forgetting the name of one band in the current year). The final song was a cover of "Big Bottoms" from the mockumentary band, Spinal Tap.

Kate Mackley

$14 The Hard Way

$14 The Hard Way

• Laura Palmer
• Rob Schumacher - Ghoultown, Little Big Horn
• Greg Altuna - Mescalero, 420 Blues Band
• Megan Carroll - Nouns Group
• Ian Messerli - Valve, 100 Proof Hero

$14 The Hard Way opened with a solid, dirty rock song featuring the low pitched, singing/yelling/talking vocals of Greg Altuna, with a melody that sounded at times similar to The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," or at the very least the snippet that gets repeated on CSI Miami's theme song. In creating a different sound from the other bands, $14 had the advantage of a violinist (Megan Carroll), which meshed very well into the first rock song, and took a more commanding role in the ensuing country and folk inspired tuneage. The second song featured primarily Laura Palmer singing sillier lyrics about sinning and making confessions over a folksy, bluegrass-twinged song that later broke out into more of a hoe-down. The third song of the set, and one of the best songs of the night, was introduced as being "country death." Ian Messerli opened the lyrics, singing over a what sounded more like an indie, Americana sound with wailing violin sharing the foreground. Palmer then joined in with her own verses, switching back and forth to tell the story of a couple that's destined to fail, largely because the woman plans on killing the man. The song sounded as if it was professionally composed over far more than a day's time, and for me, was the best put together song of the night. Closing on a cover song (that for the life of me, I can't place), $14 featured songs that were rich in instrumentation and written with full lyrics, which was definitely an achievement given the short amount of time allotted to all the bands.

Kate Mackley

The Bloodsucker Proxy

The Bloodsucker Proxy

• James Porter - The Tah Dahs, Drawn By Jamz
• Sarah Jaffe
• Kim Pendleton - The Backsliders, Vibrolux
• Paul Baker - Sub Oslo, Oveo
• Andy Bothwell - Astronautalis

The final band of the night made a point not to disappoint and featured the most interesting arrangement of the night. Sarah Jaffe took on the acoustic guitar and some vocals, as Kim Pendleton stuck to the mic and James Porter to the drums. In what was clearly a crazy draw earlier in the day, the final two members of The Bloodsucker Proxy were Paul Baker and Andy Bothwell, with a mic and three laptops between them. The band's opening song featured vocals from Pendleton, Bothwell, and Jaffe, whose part of hard-sung, emphatic, attitude laden lyrics was a bit of a departure from the slower Jaffe stylings we're used to. The second, slower song was followed by what Bothwell said was a song for all the "messes" in the room and borrowed most strongly from his lead of talking/yelling, rapped out lyricism, with Pendleton's softer voice intermittently punctuating his harsher tonalities in the chorus. Another highlight of the night, the final song, was "for the kids" as the band broke into an Astronautalisized version of Rihanna's "Umbrella" as video of the five band members playing around with a Texas Lottery umbrella, and each other, was projected on the background.

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Comments

Erin Rice Staff

Video of the first song from The Craptist Generals:

1 year ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )