Big Ditch Road garnered a good bit of well-deserved press coming into their CD release show at the Turf Friday night for their new EP The Jackson Whites, and when they finally took the stage they did not disappoint.
Three openers paved the way: Wapsipinicon, an outfit from Sean Neary (Seymore Saves the World, former Tapes ‘n Tapes) which featured Adam Svec (Glad Version) as well as Rachel Holder and Scott Hefte (Seymore Saves The World) opened up the night. Ice Palace was up second, and The Glad Version filled the Hollywood headliner slot.
HowWasTheShow photographer Alexa Jones captured this photo of Darin Wald as well as a great cross section of the rest of the bands throughout the evening. See her entire set here.
Ice Palace picked up some new fans Friday night. Several of their songs really stand out and interested many people at first hearing. Glad Version kicked butt Friday night, leading one audience member to lean into me and ask why they aren’t better known. Their latest release Make Islands is unquestionably their best to date, and since they keep on getting better with each release I wouldn’t count them out for world domination just yet.
It was almost 1:15 a.m. when Big Ditch finally began their set. Lead singer Darin Wald introduced their set by simply saying “This is our fourth record,” a concise, almost business-like touch that would initiate a kickoff of the six songs from the stellar new EP plus three earlier favorites (including my favorite from their last full length disc, “Ghosts.”) Though the band finished their set in less time than any of the opening bands, as with their decision to release two EPs back to back, BDR again showed that less really can sometimes be more. Despite pleas for encores, the band did not oblige. Look for possibly a longer set from them January 26th, at the Nomad Pub and listen to some of the songs from their new EP on their MySpace account at http://www.myspace.com/bigditchroad.
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