The Debut CD Release at The Varsity Theater on 2/3/07

By: Pat O'Brien

The Alarmists - Photo by Mike Minehart

I spy with my little eye three bands who soon will only want to talk to national media outlets—and more power to them. It will be nice to look back someday, proud that I had the chance to write about each of them, in one singular review, on their way up.

It’s official: The Alarmists are ready for their close-up, Mr. Demille. They have the fashion sense (untucked dress shirts with skinny ties, vintage mod boots) and the musical talent (angular yet straightforward rock, lightly dipped in revved-up new wave) to become the stateside version of Franz Ferdinand. Do other bands in the country have this? Certainly. Some even reside in our fair city, to be sure. But none have the jittery, spastic stage presence of keyboardist Joe Kuefler (who dragged a few girls up onstage to sit on the couch that is part of the Varsity’s stage set), who makes the band nonstop fun to watch as he skips, hobbles and slides back and forth across the stage assaulting his tambourine. None have the nonchalant, effortless charisma of lead singer Eric Lovold, who is a frontman’s frontman (good-looking, charming, and a genuinely great guy). And no other band has written “She Will Love Again.” This song will not leave my brain, no matter how much I try to chase it out, but that’s a compliment. It means they’re onto something.

They have only released one EP, last year’s A Detail of Soldiers, but by the crowd’s reaction and their singing every word back to the band, you’d think they had recorded a lifetime’s worth of material. More is on the way soon, which luckily for them won’t come near satiating this city’s need for the band. The HWTS staff have covered and covered The Alarmists over the past year and there is little else for me to say; they are one of our favorite bands and certainly some of the nicest and most deserving guys we know. This next year is going to be a big one for The Alarmists, and all the bands that were here Saturday. I can’t wait to watch it all play out.

Ben Gurstelle of the Debut - Photo by Mike Minehart

It was The Debut’s CD release, and despite the prodding of seemingly everyone I know who likes, listens to or has even heard of The Debut’s music, I had not seen them live.  It was my debut at a Debut show (hey, if every other writer in town gets a Debut joke, I get one too). They mentioned that they had moved here from Madison about a year ago and that their first gig was across the street from the Varsity at The Steak Knife sandwich shop, a weird little place that could only survive in Dinkytown. They are open late and have bands play at night—surprisingly good ones (I believe I saw Mark Mallman there after a late night at the Loring Pasta Bar some years ago), and The Debut may have been one of the best.

They opened with a thundering drum beat and off-kilter trombone riff from usual bassist Alex Puetz. “The Big Bang” was under way, and how appropriate. They sort of exploded by degrees over the course of the first two songs but they stayed at Defcon-4 for pretty much the rest of the set. They sounded like The Replacements if they had hired Stephen Malkmus as a guitarist; the songs started out fast and loud but sometimes got expansive and jangly and even a tad dissonant (in a good way) at times. It was, above all, fun as hell to watch. They were excited, the crowd was excited, their excitement made the crowd more excited and pretty soon everyone was dancing and, yes, singing along. Everyone had big, huge, dopey grins on their faces as the set ended, and it was as if they had collectively ingested massive amounts of Codeine. This was night was turning out to be genuine, unadulterated fun.

Mike Schwandt of White Light Riot - Photo by Mike Minehart

White Light Riot gets compared to a lot of big-name bands (U2, Coldplay) and some of that is true, but hearing them on Saturday I kept thinking that they sounded like Hot Hot Heat, if HHH weren’t so intent on challenging the state of themselves. I’m all for pushing yourselves a little further, but doesn’t cranking out fast, caught the batter looking, straight-ahead rock full of chunky, hooky riffs count as pushing yourself, too? The answer is yes. They were more than comfortable onstage and though they are young (a fact that gets brought up too often with many bands in my opinion), that shouldn’t matter; there is an air about them that makes them seem like veterans. The standout song for me was “Out Of Sight,” with its hair-singeing guitars and a riff that rolls back upon itself over and over, with little shifts along the way. Lead singer Mike Schwandt owned the stage and gave high fives and “Thank you for coming”s down in front, while lead guitarist Joe Christenson effortlessly got the crowd dancing, but they have a secret weapon here: his name is Dan Larsen and he plays bass. He, at once, quietly held all the songs together and separated them from the pack, much the way Eric Axelson used to do so well for the much-revered Dismemberment Plan. “He’s just the bassist.” This has been said so many times about so many people but hardly anyone ever responds “But he doesn’t have to be ‘just.’” WLR, like all the bands from Saturday, are here to stay, and we should all thank our lucky stars for it.

The Debut’s setlist:
 
The Big Bang
The Photograph Song
Hey!
Dash/Floods in Prague
Defense Wins Championships
Long Lines in NYC
Last Chance
This Time Next Year
Calm Objective Opinion (w/ long outro)
Whisper
Robbers
So Far Away
Castawayz (feat. Joe Kuefler on tambourine)

Location Info: The Varsity Theater
Artist Info: The Alarmists, The Debut, White Light Riot

Share this story: