This Saturday night's set of concerts at New World Brewery were a bookender — two really great acts sandwiched between two so-so ones.
Bradenton's Marian was one of the tasty bands. The foursome gave me a headache from the continual nodding I was doing to their music. A post-rock group, the band had a knack for instrumental prowess that affected me more in the heart than in the head. Blame the drummer — he provided the chugging locomotion behind each track, a collection of gritty chords and melodies that reverberated in my ribcage and left me smiling.
Proud Iron Lion, however, underwhelmed me. Another post-rock group, this act didn't have any distinguishing marks to set them apart from the pack of post-rockers out there today. If Marian were Explosions In The Sky at their best, Proud Iron Lion was them at their most generic and derivative. Proud Iron Lion's stylings simply didn't have any punch or zest. Perhaps it was an equipment issue, however, because their music sounds much better on their MySpace page.
Matt Hires was next. A local favorite for his work back with the group Brer, Hires amassed a sizeable crowd for his set — including a contingent of women in high heels, a rare site at the low-key New World Brewery. He was visibly nervous, which was surprising for a major label artist. Yet, his voice held true and clear. Problem is, what he sing was cloying and sickeningly sweet. He was crooning the type of music that makes a certain type of feminine person swoon. A person next to me summed up this estrogen-pleasing performance adroitly. "I don't like this because I don't have a vagina," he said. With his great hair and Dondero-meets-Oberst vulnerable quaver in his voice, Hires' music definitely could be appreciated by people looking for kinda-girly soft rock. But, unfortunately, he didn't have the artistic ability of Dondero or Oberst, as evidenced by his commonplace lyrics and schmaltzy singer-songwriter demeanor. I was going to write this type of music would be perfect for a TV drama — conventionally emotional, yet harmless — but his music has already been picked up on shows such as Gray's Anatomy and Cougartown.
Alexander and The Grapes redeemed the night with another kickass set. The group has really improved since I saw them last. And they were awesome last time. The night was in celebration of their new self-titled album and featured both songs from that release and from their own catalog of unreleased songs. "Susan" was the opener and set the tone for the show — straight-up rock with an Americana backbone. It also saw lead singer Alexander Charos employ a more Johnny-Cash-like bass of a voice. Each song after was rocker after rocker that showed me I was right to bill this bands as one of the best in Tampa. It also brought into effect the assertion made by new Arts & Entertainment editor Julie Garisto in a St. Petersburg Times profile she wrote on the band. She talked about their "rock backbone of the Band and psychedelic earthiness of Foxtrot-era Wilco." With all of the sonic experimentations, I agree with the Wilco characterization. And in terms of rockability, it was definitely held together by a spinal column of similar stuff that the Band used. Case in point, near the end of the set, I thought someone was flicking cigarette ash on me. I soon realized that the "ash" was brown flakes of what appeared to be roofing insulation. Seems about right for the band — rocking the roof off the place.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.