Wednesday, January 9, 2013

January Veracity with Tangerine, Thee Samedi, Kathy and Rebel

Another interesting Veracity show last night at the Vera Project. The order of the bands got switched a little due to a late arrival, but the show went off smoothly.

Kathy was the final act confirmed for the show, they roll with a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer. The vocals are mostly incidental in most of their songs. 2013 Jan 036 The guitarist plays facing sideways, so the drummer is in his field of view. The guitar is prominent, a bit distorted with plenty of echo and sustain. The first song builds slowly from the guitar, adding the drums in after a few measures. The vocals are quiet, a minor addition to the song.
Interesting approach, the guitar probably could have been louder but I always enjoy listening to distorted guitars and pounding drums. The transitions as the drums kick in for a while, then stop again for a few measures, then back in again provide some contrast as they work through the song progression.

Next up was Rebel, a hip hop performer working over recorded beats. This one is a Seattle song that talks about needing sunny days and rain.
The third act was Thee Samedi. 2013 Jan Veracity 004
The front man definitely carried on the traditional over the top rock extroverted front-man role. Above and beyond the music and the singing, he put on a performance for us. The band's instruments are the classic power trio guitar, bass and drums setup, and it worked well with the band crunching out angular punky sounded thrashy music and the vocalist sneering and writhing, stripped down to his pants - no shirt no shoes, obnoxious service, classic punk approach.
Eventually he added some colorful touches with the help of the audience and started writhing on the ground while singing. 2013 Jan Veracity 008
You should've been there, it was a pretty classic performance. We had 3 or 4 older adults watching them from the catwalk above and I couldn't help wondering if the lady taking pictures with her cell phone was his mom. Definitely a fearless performance!

The final act was Tangerine, who varied their instruments a bit from song to song. They always used the bass and drums, performing some songs with 2 guitars, some with 1 guitar, and some with a guitar and keyboard. 2013 Jan Veracity 023 All of the musicians added backing vocals, with most songs have choruses with "wooh-ahh" style group backing vocals. I enjoy the vocal complexity and the more complex arrangements, I miss this a bit. It seems like it used to be a more common approach but few bands use it recently, so I definitely give Tangerine props for it. It takes some effort to work out parts and practice and discipline for the musicians to play their music and come in together on pitch effectively. Nice song structures, well rehearsed coherent sound, definitely enjoyed the set.

Fun Veracity show with quite a variety of bands and sounds, and the attendance was quite good too with around 50 people in enjoying the show. Andrienne has been doing a great job getting shows together and getting a crowd to show up to see them. Thanks, Andrienne, and thanks to the performers for a fun show!

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