How Was The Show - Colonial Vipers Attack, Ed Ackerson, Janey and Marc, Polara, Strange Lights, The Mood Swings at The Varsity Theater

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Sussedtacular featuring Ed Ackerson, Colonial Vipers Attack, The Mood Swings, Janey and Marc and more at The Varsity Theater on 11/28/08

Ed Ackerson (right) with Jim Boquist (left) at the Varsity - Photo by Jenn Barnett (See a slideshow of Jenn's photos from this show here.)

Sussedtacular is a fitting name for the showcase Susstones puts on over the holiday season. The event brings together a musical family as much as it does a group of bands, and in any true musical family, the fans are a big part of it. Friday’s event at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis was no different. As Susstones gears up for multiple releases this winter on CD, vinyl and their new 3 Sided Singles format, the post-Thanksgiving show brought together Joe Werner of Strangelights, Colonial Vipers Attack, Farewell Continental, The Mood Swings, Ed Ackerson (group), Janey Winterbauer + Marc Perlman, and was headlined by Susstones founding fathers, Polara.

We arrived early enough to hear Joe Werner laying down some amazing solo guitar. At first I thought the band would join him after a bit, but soon I learned this was to be a complete solo set. At one point Werner switched from guitar to play an electric sitar, looping the drone notes until he sounded like a veritable Hindustani orchestra. I admire what Werner did all the more given the fact that solo electric guitar sets can often sound silly or seem like grandstanding. This was neither. It was just groovy, engaging music, and those who were there early enough to hear it were still talking about it at the end of the night.

Colonial Vipers Attack was up next. From the sound of their arena-worthy set, the new album they are working on should be a real winner. I enjoyed their first release, but I recall wanting more depth. This time around, I think Chris Pavlich and his band have found it. With Shawn Grider on drums, and Kris Johnson and Jeremy Bergo of Attention filling out the band, CVP, whom I like to call "the Twin Cities own little Oasis" played a bunch of new stuff with influences ranging from Oasis to Ian Brown. Pavlich’s vocals just soar. (Listen to their 3 Sided Single here.)

Farewell Continental introduced themselves as being from Shijuku, Japan, which I don’t believe to be true even if it does say so on their MySpace page. Besides, despite the lead singer introducing himself as Dr Richard Kimble, he was pretty clearly Justin Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack. Farewell Continental only has one song posted on MySpace so far, (“Do You Want to Tangle”) and they only have 96 friends at the time of writing, which suggests this project has a bit of a low profile for now. More information is actually hard to come by. The band lists their website as http://www.pikaworks.com/pikas/. (It’s not.) Movie buffs will also note the names of the band members (Allie Fox, Rick Deckard, Norman Spencer, Jack Ryan, etc.) as are all names of characters from Harrison Ford movies. Coincidence?

The Mood Swings rocked it with special guest Dan Larson from White Light Riot on bass. They debuted their own 3-sided single, the second two songs featuring vocals by second guitarist/vocalist Sallie Watson, something I’ve really enjoyed hearing more of. Listen to their 3-sided single “Electrical Beauty” here, and see an exclusive video by HowWasTheShow of “Nothing New” here.

Ashley Ackerson and Marc Perlman rock out with Polara - Photo by Barnett

Ed Ackerson’s solo set was next, and he and his band opened the set with “Little White Lie” from his first solo album. Ackerson was joined tonight by special guest Jim Boquist for the set, and from all the smiles passed between Ackerson and Boquist during the set I’m not sure if there was an inside joke going on up on stage or if they were just having a ball playing together. In any case, it was contagious and was a definite highlight of the evening. (HWTS has two more exclusive videos from Ed’s set “Go Ahead and Cry” and “Force Field” in the blog.)

Janey and Marc’s CD won’t come out for a while yet, but the lucky folks on hand at the Varsity were able to pick it up early at the merch table. The CD features six tracks and clocks in at just over 25 minutes (25:32:47, in fact, which also serves as the EP’s apparent title.) The CD’s photography is by Steven Cohen. What’s great about the disc, besides Janey Winterbauer’s ethereal vocals, is that these songs by Jayhawks bassist Marc Perlman are finally surfacing in a form we can take home with us. One song, “Goodbye Kiss”, was jointly written with fellow Jayhawk, Gary Louris, and Louris also contributes backup vocals on three of the albums tracks. Other contributions in the studio are from Kraig Johnson, Peter Anderson, Tim Oesau and Tim O’Reagan. “I can’t remember how I got this old,” Winterbauer sings in the third line of “Back To You,” the first song on the disc, and that’s something more and more of us can relate to as time goes by. Janey & Marc only played four songs in their short set, and Jim Boquist was invited up for the final song, “Goodbye Kiss.” The whole of Janey & Marc’s album is music that makes you want to curl up at the ski lodge in front of a roaring fire.

With Tim Oesau already on keys, Peter Anderson already on drums, and Ackerson already on stage, there wasn’t much to do but for Perlman to swap out his Les Paul for the bass, Winterbauer to step down, and longtime Polara member Jennifer Jurgens to step up for the band to morph into Polara to close out the night. Completing the lineup tonight was The Mood Swing’s Ashley Ackerson. Polara delivered the perfect nightcap to a memorable and yes, Sussedtacular evening.

Ed Ackerson's set list:

Little White Lie
Forcefield
Carried Away
Go Ahead and Cry
Wired Weird
Missed My Calling
St Cate
Got Your Message