[ATTENDED: September 12, 2017] Fire is Motion
A few days before the Public Service Broadcasting show, I saw that a local NJ band (based in Union), Fire is Motion, was set to open for them. I went to their bandcamp site and really liked what I heard. I wrote to the band to see if they were going to be bringing any merch to the show, and Adrian wrote back that they were and to thank me for listening.
I was looking forward to seeing them, but when I arrived at like 8:05, they had already started–who knows how many songs I missed. Such punctuality in rock!
But the remaining four or five songs were really good–bigger and more complex than their recorded sound. And the band sounded really tight.
For this show, the band had five players. According to their Facebook page, these players could be “any combination of: Adrian Amador, Sara Salermo, Salvador Montalvo, Joseph Giambusso, Michael Winnicki, Corey Mastrangelo, Phelan Tupik, Charles Keith Sztyk, Andrew Rivera.”
So up front on lead guitars and vocals were I guess Adrian and Sara. They sang great harmonies off of each other,
I posted a video of “Day 2.” This particular song is pretty and echoey on the demo but live it totally rocked out that great guitar riff and even had a funky element to it.
Despite the heavier sound of some of the songs, primarily the tracks worked with layers of guitars. You can really hear it on this song. Indeed, the demo tracks are mellow affairs with nice harmonies all around.
I was intrigued by this song which had some deliberately discordant notes in the verses and which name-checks a place in Montclair (I didn’t quite catch it).
The band has a new album coming out (“Sara” said that their fans don’t believe her because she has been saying this for months). I assume that many of the songs they played are from that new disc. Obviously I don’t know titles, but this one ended with the line “Tomorrow’s still a better day to die.” (It’s called “How Long to Get Home”).
Despite this sentiment, Adrian was sure friendly and I enjoyed talking to him after the show.
I’m not sure how they got paired with Public Service Broadcasting. I suggested they should tour with Pinegrove, another Jersey band playing bigger and bigger venues. He said they knew the guys in Pinegrove.
Now THAT’S a double bill I want to go see.
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