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Review:
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Being as I how I live in Atlanta, it's not all that unusual to get invited to a pool party. However, in this case, Club Awesome, the band behind this evening, stated that they were having this pool party and show at local venue The Drunken Unicorn. Hmmm….The Drunken Unicorn is an indoor venue. And it doesn't normally have a pool. Now this could be…um…interesting.
With that in mind, we headed over to the venue, where upon entering, the first thing that struck me was the vague smell of chlorine hanging in the air. The second thing was yes, indeed, there was a pool (maybe 3 foot deep) set up in the back. The final realization was that, if some largish number of people got into the pool, and left wet footprints all over, the floor was going to get slippery indeed. Luckily, I had shoes with good traction.
True to their word, Club Awesome did indeed set up a pool inside The Drunken
Unicorn.
...and when swimming inside The DU, don't forget your beer and your energy
drink!
After a short while, League of Evil took the stage. When EvilSponge last
reviewed this band, they were covering Prince's Purple Rain during
this year's Corndogarama. On this night, however, they were playing their own
music. And good music it is, albeit a bit hard to characterize. As an example,
the first song of their set began with bassist Chris Parizo playing a solidly
dancing bass melody over scattered drum, whilst keyboardist Devin Simony droned
over the proceedings. In the meantime, the two guitars played off each other
gently. Finally, at the point I thought the song was entirely instrumental,
guitarist/vocalilst Christopher Simony broke into a liltingly slow vocal line
that counterbalanced the bass melody as the pace and volume both increased.
And like much of their music, while the description sounds overly complex,
the whole blends together nicely.
Christopher Simony: the Lex Luthor of Atlanta's League of Evil!
Yet, not all of their songs are so slow. Instead, the band ranged musically from rocking hard hitting guitar rock back to those beautiful drones mentioned above. It's a great sound, and it surprises me that a band that has ostensibly only been playing together for a sort time can create such a coherent set of music. And even as they left the stage, I was still wanting to hear more, and I look forward to seeing League of Evil in the future.
The League, working their evil ways...
The Ghost Hunters are honorary, and absent this evening, League
members.
After such a great opener, I was quite afraid that Club Awesome would be a
disappointment, despite the pool and the fact that I liked them when i saw
them previously. However, once they began, I was totally into their music.
Another hard to describe combination, I think at the time I termed it "Nerd
Pop." In
retrospect, I’m
not sure that does the band justice. Basically, the play lots of staccato chords,
with an occasional synth and over powerful drumming. Singer Errol Crane vocally
bops along, reminding me just a bit of some of the more quirky North Carolina
bands like SNMNMN or Eyes
to Space. In short, their set was bouncy and happy,
and made me (as well as most of the other denizens of The Drunken Unicorn)
want to dance. Towards the end of the evening, they played a fairly accurate
cover of Fire from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Surprisingly,
this choice suited Club Awesome's sound, and was one of the highlights of their
set. Then, for the second time in the evening, when the band finished playing,
I wanted to hear some more.
Club Awesome at work.
It's awesome on the floor, too.
All in all it was a great night of local music. Both League of Evil and Club Awesome are fully formed bands that play fun and interesting songs. And there was a pool! So what else can a local Indie Rocker ask for?
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