This concert was a benefit for Jeremy Wilkins of local act Underwater. Jeremy was sledding in Atlanta during our snowstorm in late 2000, and hurt his back. Since he, like most musicians, lacks insurance, some of his friends threw this show to help raise money for his mediacl bills. A noble effort, and a good size crowd for a Thursday night.

First up on the bill was Crybaby. I have never heard of this band before. They were a four piece pop band: (tight skirted) female vocals, guitars, thumping bass (by some spikey haired heavily tatooed boy who looked like he wanted to bust out into Green Day's Armitage Shanks at any point), and drums. I only heard about 10 minutes, but it seemed good. I hope to see this band again soon in order to form a better opinion of them.

Up next was one of the bands i went there to see: Adom. I had seen Adom nearly a year before, where Chris DaVoe, a tall dreadlocked graphic artist at my day job, told me he played in the band and that his style was "straight My Bloody Valentine." The first time i saw Adom they were a whirl of guitar noise and awesome drumming.

Well, ole Mr. DaVoe has left Adom, and i think that their sound suffers for it. The new guitarist is competent enough, but i never caught the whole "wall of sound" feel that i remember from that other show. Granted, that might not have been the guitarists fault -- it could have been a bad mix. Or it could have been the vocalist, who kept asking the soundguy to turn down the reverb on the guitars (much to Tracers' dismay!) so that we could all hear his voice more clearly. He really really wanted us to hear him sing. Granted, he has a nice enough voice -- kind of reminiscent of Jeff Buckley. But really guy: if you're that concerned, ditch the band and sing a capella! His constant complaints about the mix made him seem to be a bitchy prima donna, and honestly annoyed all of the collected Minions after a while.

Verdict: Adom put on an okay show of bitchy pop rock.

After Adom, there was a change of pace for Dropsonic, who RAWK! Yes -- loud guitars, bass thumping, and beating the crud out of the drums. Not innovative, but not bad. The vocalist does win the award for the best line of the night when he responded to a heckler with:

Look at me, i'm a drunk person in the crowd. Why don't you get up here and show us all your marketable skill!

After Dropsonic finished, for some reason there was a whopping great 50 minute intermission while Myssouri set up. Why -- i dunno! It's not like they have the most complicated stage set up (like, say, Empire State or one of those durn Elephant 6 bands or something). Still, it took forever, and they lost most of the crowd in the interim. Which is sad, because Myssouri played some rare songs, like Leaving Train off of Malamerica, which was the highlight of the evening for me.

However, it wasn't their tightest set. This was the first performance with a new guitarist, who played his parts well. He did not yet have the gusto or familiarity with the material that the old guitarist had, but i think that given time he will be quite good. It was also the last night for the old bassist, who is moving on. I don't know who will replace him, but we will see. I do know that when his bass amp ceased functioning (at 2 AM !!! 2 AM -- on a school night no less! Oy vey!) lead singer Michael Bradley wearily muttered into the microphone, "Perhaps that's just for the best. Good night." And the show ended, not with a bang, but with a depressed sigh.

Not the best night i have ever seen, but i am willing to chock Myssouri's difficulties up to breaking in a new member.

However, i must make a recommendation to Mr. Bradley: you might be a serious night owl, but many fans have day jobs. Try to wrap things up at a more decent hour in the future!