National Capital Rock

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Losers, love and lakes

Saturday night I headed over to Pressed to check out a couple of local pop combos, Wood Lake and Lovegood; also on the bill, Losergeek, the solo project from Finders Keepers' Chris Cook. Chris started things off. It doesn't stray too far from 1980s indie rock love featured in his other bands, perhaps with a bit of a punkier feel (and a cover of Mission of Burma's That's When I Reach for My Revolver).

The other side of Chris!

Lovegood's musical DNA also seems to spiral out of the music I was listening to as a teenager (that's about three decades ago, for those of you keeping track at home), in this case indie pop with a good groove - it's all a bit Madchester. Here's bassist Jamison and drummer Mike.

Staring action with Oskar!

Salt and pepper and Mike.

Gripping action!

Guitar action with Rob!

Lovegoodian action!

Psychedelic action!

Over to Wood Lake, who apparently began as Blue Oyster Cult-fancying teens under the name Kobahlt before going in a more atmospheric direction. Here's bassist Colin.

Harry strums a bit!

Rhian hits!

The whole lot (didn't catch the keyboardist's name, sorry!).

Woody action!

He's behind there somewhere.

And that's that!

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Got Live if you want it

Last Wednesday was my first visit to a new venue, Live! On Elgin. It's a nice space, just upstairs from Dunn's, that seems well intended to also work well as a venue for theater productions, standup comedy, film presentations and the like. It's obvious some thought has gone into the arrangement of the seating, and it's well-suited for sit-down shows - the sort of show with moshers and slam-dancers, maybe not so much. My Live! baptism came courtesy of Mississippi Grover, Mere Humans and The Ven Dreddies - starting of with the man whose tonic is sonic.

Percussive action!

Gripping action!

On to The Ven Dreddies, a.k.a. Jim, Tyler and Ike's excuse to rock and goof around at the same time.

Tyler frets!

Ike hits!

More guitar!

Jim sings!

Extra Ike!

Tyler sings!

The whole lot!

The Mere Humans released their debut album on Bandcamp at the beginning of the month (appropriately titled This Is Rock'N'Roll), and promise a vinyl version if enough folks pick up the digital version. Here's Dave rocking out some tunes from said album.

Janice handles the low end.

More guitar!

Grimacing action!

The whole lot!

Dave sings!

Janice sings!

And so on!

Chris hits!

And a better view of the space itself ...

Definitely a show that deserved a wider audience.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Above and below

Since I was already in the area, I zipped over to the House of Targ to check out some pop-punkery from Indianapolis trio The Putz and local lot Neck. School Damage were also on the bill; I got in the door just as they were packing up. Too bad - they've kicked it at previous shows. Anyway, on to The Putz, who are solidly in the post-Ramones family, a la Riverdales, Lillingtons and Vapids. Here's some frontline action from Parasites fan Billy Putz and guitarist Tyler Wrong.