It was a night of buzz bands at the Uptown.Yer Cronies were recently picked to click.The Small Cities have been buzzing in my head for months and also received a few votes for PTC. (disclaimer: One of the votes was mine.) The Van Gobots have received a fair amount of press for their new CD. Pictures of Then was the only band who wasn't really on my radar, but HWTS founder David de Young was impressed.
The Van Gobots new self-titled CD contains punk songs with a power-pop sheen. Pop-punk? Maybe. But to lump them in with the mall music of a Hot Topic-branded genre is doing disservice to the band’s earnest and serious side. The show began, “Thanks, but no thanks / I’ll do it all for myself.” (Maybe a testament to the old school DIY ethos of punk bands past.) Their CD is full of catchy and thought-provoking lyrics, which I was hoping would translate into a high-energy show. Unfortunately, I think the Van Gobots, while gifted musicians and songwriters, seem a little immature as a band. They were tense and sloppy, like they were afraid to let loose, or like they were trying too hard—they were choking their guitars to death. I am not ready to write them off though, they have promise and I look forward to seeing them once they have some more shows and songs under their belt.
The highlight of the four-band night for me was The Small Cities. With spacey, slow-burning bass; throbbing, resonating guitars and spare drum beats, the band shows great restraint. This discipline pays off in big choruses and dizzying break downs. For four guys on a stage that don’t play flashy or loud, they make a great sound.
The Small Cities - Photo by Jon Behm
Being a singing drummer is always a daunting thing. It brings to mind bad wedding bands. I shouldn’t put Small Cities drummer, David Osborn, in the same vicinity of that thought though. He pulls off the feat with ease and grace, fulfilling the front man duties from the back line. The lead vocals are traded between Osborn and guitarist Leif Bjornson. Each of them has their own singing style, but they are similar enough that it doesn't sound like two different bands. When the two singers are harmonizing with each other, the songs are at their most effective. Evoking the power-pop of The Shins and Sloan, the band has a batch of songs in their live repertoire that carry the promise of their four-song EP that was released earlier this year.
From the very first song, a lucid tale of a dark, desperate hospitalization, the band showed their sense of melody and mood. The peppy 4/4 beat of "Fargo" could have easily passed as a b-side for The Shins. Its lush soundscape proved to be just as powerful live as it is on their record. In fact, in contrast to the Van Gobots, The Small Cities seemed to play with graceful, effortless skill, which put the focus on the music, not the musicians.
The set ended with "Trust Me, I'm Not a Stalker," which is one of my favorite song titles of all time. The song itself begins with a wandering, robotic bassline, which eventually is augmented by regimented drums and feedback-drenched guitars. The tale of the seriousness of you love lost was a perfect way to end the night. "For a girl like you/ You can tear a teenaged heart right through/ It's like I got you totally wrong/ One more girl for one more song," sings Osborn. The Small Cities have a way of getting into that corner of your heart reserved for swooning. They get in there and pry it open the way a good rock song can—leaving you with goose bumps and chills like a spirit has moved right through.
See David de Young's review of the first half of this show here.
