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When Belgian Brett Spaceman joined the EvilSponge team, he introduced me to the band Film School. I picked up that album based on the strength of his
review. A few months back i picked up Hideout, their second album, and found that i liked it even more. So it was with some excitement that i dragged Tracers out on a Friday to witness a talented post-punk band.
Up first on this evening was local pop act Parade. Tonight, for the first time in the many times that i have seen them, they were a 5-piece, adding a guy (variously referred to as "Leonard" or "Luther" during the show) to add trumpet to their sound. And not just any trumpet -- he played a very tiny one, smaller than i have ever seen before. How cute!
A tiny Parade trumpet.
His addition to the sound was great, but it helped that Parade sounded really clear tonight. I cannot give enough props to EARL soundman Curt Wells for his excellent mixing work. He mixed Parade evenly, so that horn, guitars, laptop (which is becoming more and more prevalent in their sound), bass, drums, keys, and voice all sounded balanced. A fine job.
Carrie Hodge and Emily Martin, in different lights.
Parade performed their "hits" like Penelope
Shoes and That's Hott,
and also added a few new tunes to their set. I like that this band is always
growing. They continue to try new things (such as adding a trumpet to existing
songs), as well as to write new songs. It seems like every time i see them,
they play two or three brand new tunes, and the tunes tend to sound good.
This band continues to impress. If you are in Atlanta, or anywhere they
happen to be touring, you owe it to yourself to check them out. They are
on more often than not.
After their strong set, touring act Eulogies took the stage. I had never heard of this three-piece before, but their set started out great with a rollicking, guitar-driven, garage rock tune that Tracers called "High
Strung influenced". They played several tunes like that throughout their set, and ,although i don't think they were quite as frenetic as the boys from Detroit, these songs were really great.
However, the band also had the habit of descending into slower, bluesier numbers that i often found noodling. Some of these songs just wandered around until the guitar solo, which tended to not be awful, but not spectacular either.
Eulogies.
On the whole i would say that Eulogies were somewhat hit and miss. When they were on, their songs were energetically fun. But when they were off, i found myself getting bored and looking around at the crowd. Still, i have seen worse bands, and for a young band just starting out they put on a decent show.
Finally, just after midnight, Film School took the stage. This is a five-piece band, including a keyboardist (who wore the bored expression and longish straight hair of Ulrich
Schnauss), a frizzy-haired guitarist (who was actually quite good and had a lot of pedals), drums, vocals/guitar, and a female bassist in a shiny silver dress. Her parents were in the crowd, so i guess she is an Atlantan, which also explains why so many people were taking photographs of her and not Film School's leader, guru, guitarist, and vocalist, Greg Bertens.
Bertens and Film School's current lead guitarist.
Film School tore through a set of distorted, vaguely mopey tunes. I recognized quite a bit off of Hideout, including a stunning version of Dear Me. Their show was energetic with just enough new wave in it to seem cool to folks who grew up in the 80s (like this faithful reporter), but not so much as to seem derivative. They walk a fine line, but i think that they pull it off.
The crowd seemed to agree with me, giving energetic applause that seemed to delight Mr. Bertens. He seemed really pleased the response, and when they came back to do an encore he remarked, "This is the last song we can do." Apparently the new lineup hasn't learned all of the old tunes.
Still, they played a very nice show. If you are a fan of their recordings, i recommend checking them out in concert.
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