Beach Party

The first of three bands I saw at the beach party was Faggot. Now this is the first time I've seen this band and it was pretty much all I expected. Very energetic and despite not having the greatest voice, Tim is an awesome front man. Their music is definitely punk but with a hint of classic rock. The whole band, scantily clad in bikinis and speedos was all over the small stage and kept the crowd rockin.

The next band was Kites. I was in back and couldn't see much of what was going on but I'm pretty sure that this was just one person. And the music, is pure noise and distortion. It seemed at some points to try and make a melody but it was more a wall of sound and gyrations. I wouldn't necessarily call them songs but there were three groups of music to the set. I probably wouldn't go to a show soley on this guy but it would be interesting to see how sets differ.

Last up was USAISAMONSTER. I was very impressed with this band. Described as "gnarly nomadic psychedelic warriors," "a brilliantly fried two-piece guitar and drums band of sun spotters hailing from Brooklyn, NY."

And to continue quoting reviewers, because I'm not a writer (from their website http://www.loadrecords.com/bands/usaisamonster.html) "The sound of the record is a synapse firing melt of rock and other-wordly whisper. The rock goes from balls out to a gentle, massaging hand reaching into your cortex. Think astral plane hitchhikers like MEAT PUPPETS and SABBATH in the same mental fart as LOAD two piece terrorists. The fidelity of this record is total."

Needless to say I'm very glad my friend convince me to stay and check out this band. Despite the songs sometimes running on a bit much the sound was wonderful and I'll be keeping an eye out for anytime they play.

Tornavalanche

So Saturday night I went to Big V's to see this band I heard was so great called Tornavalanche. Signal To Trust and Plastic Constellations were opening. Now Signal to Trust, are a very decent band. The Plastic Constellations are what caused the art school contingent that was the audience at Big V's. For one Big V's is never crowded and if it is I expect it to be full of black, maybe some leather jackets, tattoos and peircings. Well no, that night it was full of afghan wearing chicks with bad dye jobs and rainbow covered scarfs. And I also felt as though I was not a member of the club because I didn't not bring a messenger bag to a rock show. Silly me. And you can tell they had never been to Big V's before because so many of them missed the step to the area at the right of the stage and tripped and fell into a bunch of mic stands, to my entertainment. Seriously, you would think they learned but I say about 5 or 6 people do that. Tornavalanche, despite being on a Milwaukee Hard Core festival list a few weeks prior were not hardcore at all. And it was obvious that they cared more about their vocals than their guitar. When they played their cords and did their shit they had a rockin sound, but that would stop when the guy started singing, and I didn't care for it at all. If they kept the rock through the whole song, I might have been more into it.

Halloween

After parties on Saturday night and being hung over on Sunday night it was back to the music on Monday. I rocked out to the Toxic Avengers at the Triple Rock, did the Hip Shake with Eleganza in the Entry, busted a move in the First Ave mainroom and the Safety Dance in the VIP Lounge. It was quite the night.

The Toxic Avengers were very fun ripping through some great Avengers covers all while The Toxic Avenger played in Fast Forward. After that I hit the Entry. Eleganza played Suspicious Minds which had been in my head for the past two weeks so I sang my heart out with them. As usual a strong set of some good old rock songs.

Missed Smitty DJing cause I was in the Entry. There was some hip hop stuff in the mainroom, I danced a bit and was glad to see a good crowd there. Then up to the VIP Lounge for some 80s music including Milli Vanilli and the Safety Dance. An all around movin' sort of night.