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Poppies (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, March 11, 2019) [PINEGROVE]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, House of Independents, Pinegrove, Poppies, Set in New Jersey! on March 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 11, 2019] Poppies

I was supposed to see Pinegrove twice at the end of 2017.  Then their scandal broke and they cancelled their shows.  They have come back out of hiding for a few shows around the neighborhood.  I couldn’t get tickets to their very first shows.  Then came this trio of shows in Asbury Park.  I had actually somehow scored a ticket to Saturday night’s show before realizing that we were going to Aurora that night.  I didn’t see that they’d added a show on Sunday until it was sold out.  But when they added a Monday show, I was there and managed to get a ticket.

Poppies opened all three nights.

They are a four piece with May on lead vocals (primarily) and guitar and Ian on lead guitar and some lead vocals.  The thing that stood out for me about them was their utterly deadpan demeanor onstage.  In between songs the banter was nonexistent or really really dry.  “Hi, we’re Poppies.”  “This is a new song.”

They play a fascinatingly diverse style(s) of music.  Some of their songs were quiet with gentle guitars and May’s quieter vocals.  But some of the songs totally rocked out with some of Ian’s wilder guitar noises.  Some songs did both.

The set opened with a slightly discordant guitar and May’s whispered vocals.  I liked that she had on a blazer for the opening (and wide weft cords!) and then revealed her bright yellow shirt a few songs in.

I was concerned that an opening set of this kind of music would be rather tedious.  But then they opened it up with some good rocking guitar and May’s louder vocals. I especially loved the noises that Ian made on his guitar in the beginning of this song.

My favorite song of their set came as either the last or second to last of the night.  May said that  these next few songs were so new they didn’t have names yet.  They were the most enjoyable of the bunch to me.

That bodes well for future releases from them.

 

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Trace Mountains (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, March 11, 2019) [PINEGROVE]

Posted in Another Michael, Asbury Park, NJ, Brother Bird, House of Independents, LVL UP, Pinegrove, Set in New Jersey!, Trace Mountains on March 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 11, 2019] Trace Mountains

Pinegrove played three nights at House of Independents.  Each night featured Poppies opening and then a second band in the middle slot.  Saturday was Another Michael, Sunday was Brother Bird and Monday was Trace Mountains.  Interestingly, I was supposed to see Brother Bird open for Lily & Madeleine a few weeks earlier, so I have now missed Brother Bird twice.

I hadn’t heard any of them, so that didn’t have any impact on which night I wanted to go.  Originally it would have been Another Michael.  But since I switched dates to Monday, I got to see Trace Mountains.

I also had no idea that I had recently seen the lead singer and guitarist of Trace Mountains, for he is Dave Benton of LVL UP.  I was trying to remember whose songs I liked best when I saw LVL UP.  All three singers sang and I enjoyed Benton’s more deadpan style of singing.  It’s interesting that Trace Mountains was supposed to be a somewhat quieter side project and yet in my experience all of these songs were more rocking than his LVL UP songs.

Trace Mountains is (was?) his solo project.  For this show the band was a four piece with a great lead guitarist and a solid rhythm section.

I can’t find the names of any of the players, but I really enjoyed the guitarist in the ocher cardigan who stood in front of me.  He also plays keys.  At one point he and Benton shares soloing duties which sounded pretty great.

Indeed, all of the songs were enjoyable.  And there was a good variety in the songs.  I didn’t catch song title, but while there were some real Stomping cuts they also changed up their delivery style with slower rockers like this one. I was also intrigued by Benton’s voice, because it sounded quite different depending on the song.  And yet it never sounded quite as deadpan as he did with LVL UP.

Benton was an entertaining frontman as well.  He joked (or maybe not) that he was happy to be there except that he was missing The Bachelor.  There was also a funny moment in the middle of their set when someone started chanting “one more song” like they do for encores.  But mid-set it came across as very funny and Benton was certainly in on the joke, “Sorry to disappoint you….”

I enjoyed their set quite a bit.

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Overlake (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, April 26, 2018) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr., Guided By Voices, House of Independents, My Bloody Valentine, Overlake, Philadelphia, PA, Slowdive, Yo La Tengo on April 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 26, 2018] Overlake

My friend Al knows the members of Overlake and he thought he might be attending this show.  I was bummed he wasn’t there (and even moreso when I tried to text him to see if he was there and realized that I didn’t have his cell number, gah).

I wound up getting to the show really early and parked literally against the stage.  I was fascinated that at the start of the show all three drum sets were set up.  And how fascinating that Overlake (the opener) was right in the middle.

I looked up the band before the show and the description of the band sounded like I’d really like them:

Overlake is a three-piece band from Jersey City, comprised of Tom Barrett (voice, guitar), Lysa Opfer (Bass, voice), and Nick D’Amore (drums).  When they’re not incessantly waxing philosophical about the musical merits of both MBV and GBV … Overlake is busy honing their own unique brand of noisy dreampop, drawing from such stalwart influences as Dinosaur Jr, Slowdive, and Yo La Tengo.

(more…)

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Rituals of Mine (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, April 26, 2018) [BUILT TO SPILL]

Posted in Asbury Park, NJ, Built to Spill, House of Independents, Rituals of Mine, Sister Crayon, The Afghan Whigs on April 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 26, 2018] Rituals of Mine

Rituals of Mine was a band I hadn’t heard of.  They were opening on the co-headlining Afghan Whigs/Built To Spill tour.  I don’t know why Built to Spill played this one-off, solo headlining show in Asbury Park, but I was super thrilled to see them alone.  I do really like Afghan Whigs, but it didn’t seem like a double bill I wanted to attend.  Rituals of Mine came along with Built to Spill to Asbury Park.

I looked up Rituals of Mine and learned that they used to be called the worst band name ever: Sister Crayon.  They even released an album as Sister Crayon and have since re-released it as Rituals of Mine.

Before the band came out, the stage was covered with drums.  And Rituals of Mine’s drummer was off to the left.  When the lights dimmed, a strobe light started flashing in the bass drum, which was kind of cool. (more…)

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