It had been a few weeks since I went out to a show, which was starting to make me a little crazy. I just had not seen much that motivated me to really get out and go to a show. So I had tried to rally some people to go to the show with me, but short of people that I don't have fun at shows with, everyone was out of town for the holiday weekend. Happens sometime. So I decided to go to this show solo, and headed down to Ash Street. I missed the last Radio Moscow show at East End (too many good shows in one night), so I wanted to make sure I saw them live this time. And these days, time alone by myself (even if in a public place) is rare and precious. A little people watching and self seclusion would do me right.
Macrocosm was the opener, seen them a few times now, they get put on bills everywhere. While these kids can play their instruments, there is a certain lacking of musical refinement (but hey, who doesn't want to play super fast all the time when your younger). Also the vocalist does the super effected vocals thing. He has the crazed look, but the processing is just so over the top, that after a few songs it wears thin. Too much delay and reverb, not enough actually singing, everything starts to sound the same, Not a terrible band, but at the same time not one I am going to make a huge effort to see.
White Orange I was hoping to catch to see if my opinion of them would change with a second show. But alas, by the time I arrived, White Orange had literally just finished their set. Up next was Root Jack.
Root Jack is a band I am aware of primarily because of the short time a few years back when I was playing with what would become Charming Birds. I met Kris, the guitarist and singer for Root Jack because he was in a band called Moonshine hangover with Will Johnson, the songwriter for Charming Birds. I was a little puzzled as to what such a band would be doing on this bill, but soon I would be enlightened. Anyway, the music is not what I tend to lean towards these days, but I am still a fan of a broad swath of musical generes, so I go in with an open mind.
It is hard to review Root Jack without making an Allman Brothers comparison. There songs are rootsy, bluesy, southern rock influenced tunes that seem decidedly out of place in the NW music scene. With the first couple of songs were fairly simple numbers, with typical topics of love lost, whiskey, women doing you wrong etc. The playing was tight and well put together, if not up my ally musically. There was even an Allman Brothers cover, or would that be a Muddy Waters cover since the Allman's covered it? Anyway, Trouble No More was the song. I suppose Root Jack wears their influences on their sleeves. I made it through the whole set (which was almost an hour, BTW), and was left feeling unmoved. Why was Root Jack on this bill?
Or perhaps more appropriately, why was I into Radio Moscow? Well Blues, Psychedelic, Rock, yeah, that's right up my ally. So Radio Moscow took the stage, and the rhythm section was tight. The exploded into a straight forward blues rock tune. One might even call it party rock. Straight forward, nothing that has not been done (better mind you) before. This continued for several songs. I did take note that the guitarist, who's name I am too lazy to look up, was playing through three half stacks, and his guitar tone did not sound good. Tone was muddy and hard to hear.
The connection to Root Jack was somewhat apparent, with the bluesy Greg Allman influenced vocals, and the more straight up blues approach. Apparently, adding a wah solos and heavy reverb makes you psychedelic. Really more of a blues rock party band with some psychedelic tinges in my mind. Hendrix-esce guitar wankery prevailed. Now I am not overly sensitive to wankery per say, and actually enjoy some guitar wankery in my show, but it does wear thin after a few songs.
While writing this, I visited Radio Moscow's myspace to satisfy my curiosity of why I was interested in this band, given my disappointment with the live show. Well, for starters, their are a number of overdubs on the recordings which make the band sound like more than a trio, a second and third guitars, to be exact, that bring a life to the reocrdings that is just not present live. I head slide, I hear acoustic, I hear dynamics. I hear space. All of these things were missing from the live show.
Well, exploring new bands and music always involves some level of risk. Every show is not going to be good, you can't win them all. I must say I was a little disappointed with Radio Moscow, leaving before the set ended cause all the songs were starting to sound the same. Maybe a bad night for them, or a bad mix, I don't know, but all the songs started to blend together, which is never good.
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