I got there at 7 and the doors weer open and a fair crowd was on hand already. We got the food prepared and server by 7:30 as the first bands started playing.
I had a couple of volunteers show up, that's fairly unusual for the Veracity shows, so I had them wash up, put on gloves, and serve tacos. That gave me enough time to get videos and photos of every band, which is nice. Don't get me wrong - that doesn't automatically mean I got good pictures, but at least my new Nikon SLR takes nice photos in spite of my abilities.
Take the band names with a grain of salt, I've never seen these guys before (that's true of most bands I see) so I have to assign names based on the band list at the show:
So this first band is Cig Bros. They use a saxophone, I really like the soud of saxophones and I've always considered it one of the beter rock and roll instruments, they way it can express range of emotions from upbeat and brash to quiet, reserved and sad, and wailing when it's really called for, I just love the range and tone of this instrument when it's played well.
I like that one better, except the drummer is obscured. In this one the drummer is clear, and the guitarist is facing the wrong way.
You can probably see what I mean about how good the camera is vs. my ability to frame a picture just so. I liked these guys, good driving beat and a nice sound. The mix in this video is off, since we're back by the drums and behind the monitors and guitar speaker cabinets in the concession stands, so the drums are almost overpowering. Luckily they have a good drummer so it's till pretty good, it was better live out front, but I was busy setting up the cooking equipment so this is what I got. I liked these guys, good group cohesion, they were well rehearsed and tight, well worth checking out at a show. They had me bouncing as I plugged my electric frying pan in and chopped up the letuce and trained the volunteers.
I filmed a short bit out front where you can hear the house mix, which is much better even i the short bit of the groove I ccaught here - right before they go to a drum break, so drums are quite prominent in both of these videos:
Next up was If BEARS Were BEES who used some even more unusual horn arrangements like this bit with a french horn:
They also had a french horn and trumpet duet on one song.
They said that their French horn player's last name is French which amuses me. I applaud the interesting approach and variety of sound they got. Their songs were interesting and the lead voalist had a good performance style, definitely flashed some charisma and put on a good show.
Now that I look at the pictures I notice that all the band members had white button front shirts with assorted colors of rectangles and the vocalist had a dark shirt, which helped bring the natural focus to the leads, which I responded to on an unconscious level at the show, nice little touch, using style contrasts for dramatic embellishment.
Next was Brain Cooks, an interesting sounding band with an atractive young woman doing lead voals.
Brain Cooks occasionally had a hint of rock-a-billy to their sound, with a mild amount of distortion and that nice electric sustain sounding comfortably familiar and the bass and drums pumping out a nice four by four beat, but they mixed it up a bit frmo song to song, yielding a good mix of elements, nice build and release of tensions, lousy video (from the concessions stand again, dums are a bit high in the mix and the vocals can be hard to make out since we're beind the monitors again. I'll have to try harder to record out in front of the monitors).
Another interesting band, fun to watch, good hooks and dynamics in the songs. I wish my videos did them justice, definitely worth checking out.
The final act was Bread and Circuses and they shared several members with If BEARS Were BEES with a different lead.
Bread and Circuses had a great full sound with the double guitar attack and two vocalists and interesting songs. They also mixed it up well, playing songs with different tempos and varying things quite well from song to song. They were well rehearsed - they did a sequence of four songs one after the other without pause, mixing up the pacing fast then slow then fast then slow, quite tasty. As is typical for me I liked the fast ones best like this one:
...and maybe even more so this one:
I love the colorful guitar the dude onthe right is playing, I'm not sure if that's an octopus or a kraken or maybe asquid but I love the color and nautical theme.
Another kick-ass Veracity show with an even bigger attendance than ever and four fine sets put on by excellent bands, all talented and appealing in their own ways. Add four more bands to the "worth seeing repeatedly" list, Monica has been doing a great job booking these events and the bands have really been coming through with fun and engaging performances.
The volunteers did most of the dishes and took the concessions stands trash out before they left which was very nice of them. I could get used to having some additional volunteers, I'm thinking about formalizing the "Volunteer at the Veracity Show" process a little more, probably involving the Veracity and Programming committees, probably not nearly as interesting a topic as the bands themselves so I'll try to keep that chatter down to a dull roar, maybe a paragraph or two per post at the most.
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