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by
michael d. woliansky
We were late.
Were you surprised? I really wanted to see Whatever It Takes. I had heard a bunch of good things about them from Rachel, among other people–members of Anti-Flag, good live show, etc.–but alas, things don’t always work the way we’d like them to, and we walked in the door just as Hey Mercedes’ set began. Good and bad things have been said about these guys, a fate that usually befalls musicians that wander into “ex-members” territory. For some old-school fans it will never be the same without ____ around. For others, new and old, they’ve never seen better stuff. Now, these guys are not Braid, even if three out of the four members were in Braid (guitarist Mark Dawursk is the only new ingredient in the mix.) They’re damn close to the original, but the subtle differences make all the difference to me.
The
sound is basically the same: Bob
Nanna’s soothing, lispy vocals over fuzzy, thick guitars and intricate
drumming. But check out more pictures of Hey Mercedes here
Children
of the New Brunswick scene, Thursday
took
the stage in front of a friend-filled hometown crowd and tore the place
apart. I’d never seen
them before, and I was fairly impressed.
Their music blends the gut wrenching and the melodic with less precision
and groove than a band like The Deftones, but with the same dynamic
power. On stage check out more pictures of Thursday here Only Saves The Day could
wreak more havoc at a show in New Jersey–and they did. A fitting and triumphant homecoming after the massively
successful Vagrant Across America Tour, this sold-out show was one of
Saves The Day’s first But that night, something was different. The sound of Lifetime’s Jersey’s Best Dancers faded from the house speakers (admittedly an ironic choice....I remember when kids used to tease Chris with shouts of “Ari” when they played in Philly, “back in the day”) and the stage lights dimmed. Some rather dramatic music that I couldn’t quite place began to play–perhaps the bellowing, dramatic horns of a John Williams movie soundtrack, but I can’t be sure–and four young kids in blue jeans and t-shirts (plus Hey Mercedes’ Damon Atkinson filling in on drums for the departed Bryan Newman), walked casually onto the stage. Maybe it was the crowd’s overwhelming energy. Maybe it was the heat, or the lack of oxygen started getting to me. But from the first chord, Saves The Day were actually good. In fact, they were really, really good. Energetic, engaging, and powerful all at once. One crowd surfer after another took flight, landing on the stage (and undoubtedly on the soft, fragile heads of the people below them), tugging at singer Chris Conley's pant-leg, reaching out for his hand. He sang like a giddy schoolgirl, seemingly intoxicated by the over-powering energy of the crowd. “You guys don’t know how beautiful you are” he bemused over the microphone between songs.
After seven or eight songs, Conley gave
the frenzied crowd a chance to relax with a two-song, solo acoustic
interlude, which included
"Three Miles Down," the only acoustic track from their first album, Cant
Slow
Down, and one of only two songs
they played from
th A
majority of their set was comprised of
tracks from their newest album, Stay What You Are, on indie
big-boy Vagrant Records. And
although I haven’t had a chance to listen to the album at great
length, it’s evident from their live performance that I can expect
something very different. In
only a few short years, Saves The Day has developed a really strong and
undeniable pop-sensibility. Their
songwriting has grown and changed in leaps and bounds, from the
aptly-titled Ca check out more pictures of Saves The Day here With the new songs they played from Stay What You Are, they take another big step, experimenting with mellower guitar sounds, and new vocal melodies. There are some tremendous choruses, as they slowly and patiently find power and emotion without break-neck speed, thick distortion, or tremendous volume. It is very pop–some of the new songs even feel a bit teeny bopper-ish at times–but without all those cheesy, vacant lyrics. Chris Conley’s bitter, edgy lyrical musings blend with beautiful pop songwriting. I’m trying to imagine punk meets Simon & Garfunkel, but I’m having a hard time making it stick. It’s certainly not revolutionary, and I’m not even sure where to place it on the “sounds like” meter, but it feels like uncharted territory to me.
They closed their set with the first single off of Stay What You Are,
a catchy, rather poppy tune titled “At Your Funeral. |