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Concert Report: Ugly Casanova, The Sunshine Fix

After a little mix-up regarding the dates (and for as good as tonight's show was, I can't help but wonder if tomorrow's BOTH show will be better) I found a nice person to go with me to the show. I had already bought the album so I could be at least a little familiar with the songs, which I think was a good idea for this.

The opening band The Sunshine Fix turned in a very good, energetic, set. They had a little bit of a southern rock style, perhaps because they are from Athens, Georgia, but the most impressive thing was their smooth transitions from one song to the next. No time wasting from these boys! We definitely got our money's worth for an opening act. They had some crazy box that looked like an old printer or piece of scientific equipment from the 60s that may or may not have had a keyboard for producing some weird sounds, which was also intriguing. Besides the guy playing whatever that was, they had a bass/guitar/drums/singer with guitar setup. They also had a cool banner they hung behind them which featured some crazy robot-like character clawing at the sun. Neat. The music itself was energetic, usually with a pretty strong rhythm (which could be described as "danceable" if it were not an indie rock show) (I actually overheard a guy lean over to the woman he was with and say "they're not very indie, are they?" but couldn't tell if it was a joke or he was being serious) that may not have been the most musically creative thing in the world but was certainly listenable and enjoyable.

We were supposed to get another band but apparently they showed up late or didn't show or something, so Ugly Casanova went on next. It took them a little while to find their stage presence I think, and the audience banter wasn't very exciting (telling us to buy more drinks?) but the music was pretty entertaining. My quick background listens to the album definitely didn't give me a clue about the complexity going on behind the songs. They kept changing up instruments, having different people contribute to the vocals, and occasionally using a megaphone thing to scream stuff through. They must have played all or almost all of the songs from the album, because I recongized a bunch of the songs and couldn't remember anything they didn't play. The crowd got into it pretty well (with one screamy girl that was into it too much) but I don't think most people were familiar enough with the songs yet for it to be like the modest mouse show where everyone was singing along at times. They definitely have a different, but related, sound from modest mouse. More rich vocals, due to the other band members, and a more interesting instrumentation (banjo!) that mm usually has. And they go for more of a country sound, which showed me that it really amuses me to see indie rock kids jumping around to a banjo solo. Heh! The encore was a not-as-energetic version of "barnacles" followed by a banjo-heavy countrified version of "styrofoam boots" which was pretty awesome, although the end kind of petered out into a final looping bit of sound as they left the stage. I'm a believer in the big rocking finish, but I'll accept this change from the usual version of a song I knew and liked. I definitely enjoyed the show, although there were some feedback issues at times and the vocals, as usual, were impossible to understand a lot of the time. The friend I was with thought it was much better than the album, though, although I am going to have to listen to the album again to make my decision on that.

A nice show, though - but I wonder if it would be even more intense at BOTH. Oh well.