April 05, 2007
Destroy Nate Allen
One of the guys that writes for HM is on tour right now and he played Austin last night. It was a cool set, where he told stories with his songs and it was very well received. It was cool that another artist on the bill (Kim something from a band called One Eyed Doll), who knew him back in Oregon (where they're both from -- he's living in Portland and she now lives in Austin). A funny coincidence. Nate is touring across all 48 states for the first time and is letting his CDs go for free or for whatever anyone can afford. He's really a talented guy with something to say. I recommend keeping up with him.
This was the third show I'd seen in about a week. Two different shows at La Zona Rosa were pretty cool -- Lovedrug and the Switchfoot/Copeland show a few days earlier.
Lovedrug played with Dear And The Headlights, Boys Night Out, and Plain White T's. They went on second with a simple setup with the small 4-piece drumset a little left of center stage. They started with little to no fanfare after a long while of sound/line checks. The singer acted slightly tired, like he was partly going through the motions or perhaps was trying to purposefully convey a jaded vibe. He brightened up as the show went along and the audience gave him feedback that they were actually connecting with and enjoying the songs. Maybe it took awhile for these mostly 17 year old girls in the audience to catch on to the hooky melodies. Or maybe Michael Shepard, David Thomas Owen IV, Korey Christopher Jones, and James Childress were caught offguard or intimidated by playing to a Boys Night Out and/or Plain White T's crowd. Eventually they won the "battle" and everyone was grooving.
"Doomsday" went over really well, which was a request from their friends in Dear And The Headlights. The second song ("Salt Of The Earth"), was a really heavy song with that crashing sample stuff. It sounds even bigger and richer live, perhaps. The "Blackout" song was cool. The drummer towered over his small and minimal 4-piece kit well, showing a complete command of the instrument with a nod to the skill of the simple beat, although his fills were creative when needbe. "Happy Apple Poison" went over well, as did "Voice By Your Side." The last song ("Pushing The Shine") reminded me a little bit of Muse, with a frenetic and high end slightly nasaly vocal approach.
Very solid, but short set.
Switchfoot played to a sold-out crowd there the Saturday night before. Watching Jon Foreman and company rock the stage showed me performance glimpses of Mute Math, Bono, and Sonny. (See if you can place the reference to the action/description)
They punched "go" with the stripped down and raw "Dirty Second Hands." I thought that was a great way to jumpstart the energy for the show. Next up was "Stars." During the first or second song, the Switchfoot frontman had a cymbal stand in his hand, which he danced around the stage with, wacking it with a drumstick furiously as the song progressed. High energy numbers like "Oh! Gravity" sounded really great. "This Is Your Life" served as a cool moment as well. "Faust, Midas and Myself" was another lighter, but memorable song.
Late into the set, after songs from the last three popular albums, including the much-anticipated "Meant To Live," Foreman went wild. He crowdsurfed backwards with some of that tubelight stuff -- several feet of it followed him well past the halfway mark onto the club's floor, atop hands held aloft. It was fun watching him as well as the snake light weave its way through the top of the crowd. He was definitely connecting deeply with the audience in a very endearing way. That wasn't enough, so he climbed atop the stage left speakers up by the ceiling and led the crowd in clapping and singing along to the ending refrains of "Dare You To Move." It left the crowd fairly spent, most realizing that they'd all just shared a cool show.