w/ Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!, Arundel
Arundel was up first, playing to a room that had no more than
eleven punters in attendance. There were more band members lingering
around than there were guests. The solo artist himself remarked that
there was so few people, that you really noticed when each new guest
entered. He had a chuckle to himself because of this. Moving on.
Arundel’s sound is unlike most “popular” music on the market. It is more
like, for lack of a better phrase, an electronic soundscape.
The one-man band started on drum pads and synth for his first couple
of songs, before moving between glockenspiel and guitar as well as these
pads. He also welcomed Claire Whiting (from Inland Sea) to the
stage for some guest vocals. These two songs were pretty much the only
time lead vocals were featured in the set. “Flourish”, a tune he was
debuting live tonight, was the highlight of the set for me. It was the
one and only time he donned his guitar, and used loops to basically
create a song from scratch. Awesome stuff.
Next up was Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! Here’s a band that I
cannot make heads or tails of. I like what they have got going on,
especially Caitlin Duff’s sensational vocals, but at some times in the
set, they actually looked bored. There are other times however, when
they looked very impassioned about what they are playing. It was quite a
strange extreme.Regardless, the music they create is really quite interesting, and is
made more so by the vocals. Miss Duff has such rich tones throughout
the entirety of her vocal range. There were moments where she even
reminded me a little of Stevie Nicks. In all honesty, this band
would be nothing without her talent. “Code Breaker”, the band’s new
single, was quite different to most of their other work. But in a good
way, it differentiated it from the rest of the set.
Headlining for the night was Founds. This band is not
everyone’s cup of tea. I can definitely appreciate that. They opened
with the lead vocalist singing and playing a simple bass riff on her
synth, at a particular point in the song, she was joined by the rest of
her band to bring the song to its climax and conclusion. This young lady
also has a sensational voice, but I found her lack of connection with
the audience a little disconcerting.She rarely looked up from her synth, or if she was looking out, she
had her eyes closed. Also, she didn’t speak, bar once mid-set to thank
everyone for coming. No one else in the band spoke either, so it was a
little strange. The band has two distinct styles of music. The type
where the vocalists are singing simple melodies consisting of long
sustained notes, while the band plays intense rhythmic accompaniment,
and the type that is more “indie-pop” and more sing-song like, while
retaining that folk like influence. I like this about the band. One last
thing of note, the violin player is insane! In the best possible way
imaginable!
This was a night of ups and downs for me. There were some truly
amazing moments from each act, but then there were also moments that
didn't quite sit, and they lost me in that moment. I think I need to
hear more from each of these bands; see what else they’ve got stashed up
their sleeves.
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