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Review:
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In both my end
of the year list for 2003 as well as my review for their
album These
Are Good Times, I mentioned that I think The High
Strung are one of the better live bands I've seen recently.
However, I've never really reviewed their concerts before. Furthermore,
the last time they came through Atlanta, I missed seeing them
and hearing the new material the band had promised. So despite
the fact it was a Wednesday night, and I had to work the next
day, I headed off to The Echo Lounge with the need to write
a review in mind.
The first opening band was Hot Young Priest, a new Atlanta
group comprised of former members of other bands such as Shamgod
and Crybaby.
They are a relatively new band who have played out a lot recently,
but this was my first time to see them. Although I wasn't sure
what to make of their overall sound, it is clear that the three
members of the band know what they are doing, and can create
individually interesting musical lines. In particular drummer
Chris Jensen impressed me. I had seen him play in other bands,
but I had forgotten until this night what a strong and competent
rock drummer he is. I suspect as this band matures and plays
out more, their music will begin jell as a band, instead of
just being three musicians playing together.
After a short sound check, the middle band, New York's The
Everyothers, took the stage. This four-piece band's music ranged
across the board from somewhat mellow almost acoustic rock to
more glam-like rock. In my opinion, the harder sounding music
sounded the best and was better suited to the loudness and mix
of the venue. In fact, I liked the more glam-oriented stuff
that I suspected the only thing missing from their set was a
cover of Trash (by The New York Dolls).
Finally, at a somewhat late hour, The Hugh Strung came on.
As I mentioned above, I hadn't seen them in concert in some
4 or 5 months, so I wasn't sure what mix of new and old material
they would play. At first they stuck to my favorite songs off
These are Good Times, including Throwaway
and Show A Sign of Life. Yet I noticed that near constant
touring has refined the band's approach to this music. In previous
concerts, the band plowed through their songs at a breakneck
speed, hardly pausing to catch their breath. Each song would
build and build until everything reached an almost fevered pitch
that seemed hard for the band as a whole to sustain. In contrast,
these days the band paces themselves better, so that their (and
the audience's) energy level was kept high throughout the hour
long set.
Furthermore, when they moved on to play their newer songs,
it appeared that the various members of the band have learned
to be more collaborative in their approach to song construction
than they used to be. For instance, at times, you could see
bassist Chad Stocker play his almost melodic lines in harmony
to the lead guitar work of Josh Malerman. Likewise, although
drummer Derek Berk set the fast-paced beat he always does, he
paid attention to the other members to see what the music called
for next. The overall effect of the increased interaction is
to make The High String's newer songs more catchy and well-constructed
in a way that lends itself to repeated listening (and the thought
that the songs would make an excellent recording).
All in all, at the end of the night, I remained impressed by
the growth of The High Strung, and I look forward to their future
concerts as well as their next album. And, although the other
bands' performances didn't measure up to The High Strung's standard,
I suspect that difference was due more to the differences in
the number of concerts played as opposed to anything lacking
in the music.
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