NYS Music 20​16

Author: Rob Creenan

  • The Second String at The Waiting Room

    On a night where Buffalo got its first real snowfall of the season, The Waiting Room performance venue was plenty heated by its main stage. An up and coming pop-punk band, The Second String, celebrated the release of their EP, Six Ways to Sunday, with a show that served more as a celebration for themselves and a sign of things to come.

    The Second String, made up of lead singer Tom Frisicaro, guitarists Roger Pleasant and Ryan Gelder, bassist Marc Del Priore and drummer Robby Marshall, make very traditional pop-punk – a weird statement to make, taking into account how long the genre has been around and how it’s been relegated from most. Their songs are short, sweet and to the point, each one lasting between 2 to 3 minutes. The lyrics were typical.

    The fast nature of their music allowed for plenty of erratic movement on the stage, including some panels that occasionally lit up when one of the members stepped on them. Frisicaro sings very much like the singers of bands like Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World and Bowling for Soup. He has the same “trying to sound clean nasally” whine those bands have and if he was trying to directly emulate them, he was doing a good job.

    After performing 5 original songs, including material from the just-released EP, Frisicaro played an initially acoustic All-Time Low cover, with the first two verses and chorus by himself before the rest of the band joined to finish out the song. The following song was a Paramore cover where a girl, Maddie Radwan, sang in place of Frisicaro, to the enjoyment of her friends in attendance.

    At various points in the night, Frisicaro made constant mention of the band’s merch table along with sharing that his girlfriend was expecting. He also announced that the band was taking a break from performing live to focus on recording more material for a full-length album. Hopefully, with that bit of time on their side, The Second String can create something to get us excited about.

  • Debt to Nature EP Release Show at Mohawk Place

    On Saturday, December 3, the Mohawk Place in downtown Buffalo hosted an EP release show for an up-and-coming local, modern post-hardcore band called Debt to Nature. And much like the city they come from, you can instantly tell the amount of work put into their songs to make them work.

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    Debt to Nature, on the outset, seems like any other modern post-hardcore rock band. Their releases, such as their first EP From the Start, back this theory up, with angsty lyrics and guitar riffs not out of place from a Pac Sun store or a Warped Tour stage.

    But to me, at least, what set this apart was the presentation. You can hear loud, fast music in any number of establishments and get the point. But hearing it live is something different. Singer Michael O’Connor may look like a lumberjack, but delivers the lyrics with alternating power and levity that it’s amazing he can still speak at the end of the set. Bassist Josh O’Connor was confident enough in his abilities that he would engage in reverse fretting, attempt to balance his bass in one hand, and walk out into the crowd to his friends. Not to mention the hard work guitarist Brian Macijewski and drummer Nate White had to put in to keep the whole act moving at a furious pace.

    The real ace up the sleeve for this band is how easily they establish control over the crowd. I assume the crowd present goes to these kind of post-hardcore shows all the time, given the amount of head banging, people moshing by themselves, and hand gestures, but even one as uninitiated as myself could get sucked into the methods after a few songs. During the few solo guitar breaks, the audience started clapping over their heads on their own, with the singer encouraging more once it got going.

    Some of the most fun moments of the night involved just how much control the band had over the crowd. Members of one of the opening acts, The Otherme, were invited onstage to sing The Darkness’ song “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” The audience tried to sing the famous falsetto chorus line, to various results. While the band’s music may not be for everyone, this was one particular moment the entire crowd was getting into.

    Another moment didn’t involve anything the band played, but during a song break, either the lead singer or someone in the crowd shouted out “somebody” like the first word from Smash Mouth’s “All-Star,” and the entire crowd managed to sing the first verse all the way up to chorus. At that point, the singer demanded they stop as they played more.

    Either I don’t get out to see enough shows like this or this was a special occasion, because the crowd actually demanded an encore successfully. Debt to Nature were happy to oblige, feeling like they conquered the evening. Probably on their way to conquer more as well.

  • Bumpin Uglies Jam out at Nietzsche’s

    Buffalo’s Nietzsche’s got a healthy dose of reggae on December 3, thanks to the smell of weed in the air and a band from Annapolis, Maryland called Bumpin Uglies, with Buffalo their latest stop on a tour promoting their new album, Keep It Together.”
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    Bumpin Uglies, made up of Brandon Hardesty on lead vocals and guitar, Dave Wolf on bass and backing vocals, and TJ Haslett on drums, have quite the resume for a modern reggae band. Since forming in 2008, the Uglies have recorded 3 LP’s, 2 EP’s, a live album, and constant touring in the form of eight national tours and many more regional tours, including performances at Warped Tour and California Roots. On their tours, they’ve stopped in Buffalo seven times.

    The tone of the show was set even before the band took the stage. During one of the opening acts, a Buffalo reggae band named Reggie Childs got the crowd grooving thanks to the help of the main band’s fan group, the Uglies Nation, whose members danced near the stage and kept a drumbeat going on wooden boxes by the merchandise stand. This continued well into the main show, which briefly had beach balls pulled down from the space’s chandelier.

    It’s hard to call the Uglies style traditional reggae. It’s more a combination of that, plus some occasional fast ska tempos, dub vocal and guitar effects, and some good ol’ alt-rock. A good example is one of their new songs, “Place Your Bets.” The verses and chorus come off as your usual reggae with a bit of dub thrown in, but the instrumental breaks play off like a 311 song. Add a few reverb-laden guitar solos and you’ll have a good idea what these guys sound like.

    Given there were a sizable amount of Uglies fans present, the band had great crowd interaction. Hardesty would ask for shots, get a reaction out of saying he saved his drinking just for tonight, and share stories regarding songs like “Bad Decisions” and “Officer O’Hurley.” A fair amount of the show was spent on their new album, with songs like “Load in Load Out” and “Sorry I’m Not Sorry” getting a fair share of audience participation. The odd thing about the set was that on their albums, a horn section will occasionally be present, adding more reggae cred to their songs. There was no horn section present for the show, which didn’t take away that much, but could’ve added a bit more.

    Still, it was a fun evening for those in attendance, even for those who appear to have been at several of the band’s shows already. We’ll definitely be hearing from these guys again soon if the topic of modern American reggae music ever comes up, and how it can effortlessly co-opt other styles into it’s own.

  • Renaissance Still Kicking and Touring

    Renaissance are a peculiar band to say the least. They were part of the progressive rock tradition coming out of 1970’s England, but they were more committed to sounding more classical than rock. At least compared to more well-known prog bands like Yes, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer. This is a band who did a live album at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. All their best known songs have some form of orchestra backing. So with their show on November 10 at Buffalo’s Tralf Music Hall, a place that obviously can’t fit a whole orchestra inside, I wondered how they could pull the feat off.

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    On the surface, this sounds like less like a rock band and, as their name implies, a renaissance fair band. But considering they’re still touring, playing in packed music halls, and maintain their stamina despite continuing to play songs around 10-minutes long with many subsections, they certainly deserve much more credit.

    The only remaining member from Renaissance’s 70’s glory years is lead singer Annie Haslam, who has a five-octave range and can still hit and draw out many high notes. She was also the only member to talk to audience between songs. Clearly, the audience came to see Haslam; they gave her much of the adoration between songs. The rest of the band, which included two keyboard players, one dedicated to recreating the orchestral and atmospheric sounds from their albums, maintained a very stoic presence, hardly engaging the audience in ways other than singing their assigned backing vocals.

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    They did play two songs from their latest album, 2014’s Grandine Il Vento, the title track and “Symphony of Light.” Other than that, the eight other songs were from the band’s 70’s era. Prog classics like “Mother Russia,” “A Song for All Seasons” and “Carpet of the Sun” were indeed crowd pleasers, with lesser-known tracks like “Sounds of the Sea,” providing more pleasantries, especially with the sounds of ocean waves and seagulls.

    The encore, the usual closer “Ashes are Burning,” was the only chance the band looked like it was having fun and getting loose. Through it’s 15-minute runtime, everyone took a solo, including the only use of electric guitar the whole night in the final section.

    The show was an odd treat, listening to music of such a bygone era. One where such audacious, un-rock-like rock music had a chance at being commercially successful. Renaissance may not be exactly “hip” anymore, if they ever were at all during their peak years, but I imagine they’re fine with that. As evidenced by the crowd, there will likely still be people interested in this middles ages type of music.

  • Shonen Knife Return to Buffalo

    A very eclectic crowd showed up at Buffalo’s Mohawk Place on Friday, November 4th, made up of regulars, some older patrons, and some visible Japanophiles. The kinds of people based on visual looks you wouldn’t expect to be at the same show. Somehow, they all came together for quite a novelty show; a Japanese all-girl garage-pop band by the name of Shonen Knife.

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    Shonen Knife, currently made up of guitarist Naoko Yamano, bassist Atsuko Yamano, and latest drummer Risa Kawano, have had quite the long, strange history for what at first seems just like another garage band, this one just happens to be from Osaka. Since their albums got their first American release on Sub Pop records in the mid-80’s, they’ve made fans out of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and L7, along with Matt Groening and Mike Judge. They even played some dates with Nirvana on their Nevermind tour, various festivals like Lollapalooza, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Fuji Rock Fest, and had a tribute album made for them, Every Band Has A Shonen Knife Who Loves Them, featuring underground 80’s punk acts like Sonic Youth, L7, Babes in Toyland, and the wonderfully named The Mr. T Experience.

    Shonen Knife does have a soft spot for Buffalo. Their current American record label, Good Charamel Records, is based in Buffalo and run by Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac. They also released a live DVD at the very same Mohawk place establishment from their 2009 American tour.

    When they finally took the stage, after having three opening acts, Shonen Knife came out wearing dresses looking like they were flattened disco balls, playing sparkling instruments, and going straight into their fast, tight bubblegum punk songs that left a good portion of the full crowd dancing. They hardly let anyone have a chance to take a break from the fun at the frantic pace they went on at.

    The show lasted 75 minutes, but it somehow simultaneously felt like it passed by really quickly and took forever. All their songs are around two to three minutes, so they were able to fit quite a lot in for an average set. Not to mention getting various synchronized motions during and after the songs. Hell, there was only a few seconds of downtime between the songs, with Risa either doing a quick 1,2,3,4 on her cymbals or Atsuko shouting a 1,2,3,4. What downtime there was when they talked to the audience, in the best conversational English they could muster, was spent introducing the next song, or talking about their new album, Adventure, and it’s 1970’s influences.

    I suppose this next part is expected, given most American’s common perception of stereotypical Japanese music, but the song lyrics are about cute things. Like cats, complete with a “meow meow meow” chorus line, capybaras, tangerines, and how fun roller coasters are. Dare I say, the only unpleasant thing they sang about all night was wasabi. But Atsuko said she likes it before starting to sing, so maybe I’m convinced it’s gotten better since the last time I tried it.

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    Even when the band left the stage, with the audience demanding an encore, I figured they would come back eventually. It’s a tradition at most major rock shows. But this was a small venue with everyone cramped for space, where it felt like anything could happen. So when Shonen Knife came back onstage for a two-song encore after some audience chanting, it somehow felt more earned than when it happens in an arena setting.

    For a band with a visible American cult following, along with being around since 1981, it’s was odd for me at first seeing a band with Shonen Knife’s cred playing here, one of many Buffalo venues mainly catered toward local bands. Now I wonder if they play at any larger venues here in America, if it may ruin their mystique. I don’t blame them for wanting to play in a small, cramped space like the Mohawk Place. It just makes the fun all the more infectious, which makes for a better experience.

  • Vibe and Direct Play Nietzsche’s

    On what felt like the first Buffalo weekend it actually felt like fall, a band from Cleveland made their first appearance at Nietzche’s on Friday, October 21st. While many other bars nearby in Buffalo’s Allentown district had people flocking in from the cold, this establishment had quite the treat in Vibe & Direct.

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    The band, made up of Doug Rab on bass, Mike Miller on guitar and electronic effects, and Danny Giannetto on drums, plays a self-described psychelectrojam dance party. It comes down to Miller playing his guitar in a blues-smooth jazz sounding style, with plenty of fast strumming thrown in, Rab bouncing around on bass wearing his lensless green sunglasses, poofball golf hat, and shirt saying “Electrolytes, it’s what plants crave,” and Giannetto throwing off drum licks like Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band.

    Despite the band’s proclamation of psychelectrojam, the jam part is what stands out most. The psychelectro aspects didn’t feature in every song, they moreso enhanced, but that didn’t stop the audience there from bobbing their heads along with the sharp beats. A band engaging in lengthy jam sessions needs to know where the other members are heading, chord-wise and tempo-wise, so that the entire song doesn’t fall apart. Thank goodness these players have those skills. No matter where they were in the middle of their various jams, nobody gave the impression they were lost, nor struggling.

    The song that best epitomized Vibe & Direct’s set and style was a cover of Seals & Croft’s “Summer Breeze,” from early in the set. It started off respectable enough, channeling the same yacht rock vibe the original captures. But once the first 3 minutes of the song were up, they went on an original jam session that had you forgetting they were playing a cover. It was a shame they had to take a 10-minute break after finishing because of technical difficulties involving Miller’s computer.

    Vibe & Direct kept at it until 2 am, playing through roughly two and a half hours with an intermission. It was also the night the Chicago Cubs won the National League pennant, and will face the band’s hometown Cleveland Indians in the World Series. Miller had to make a comment that two championships for Cleveland in one year would be too much for him. They certainly kept those huddling in the cramped standing space entertained, and no doubt those listening at the bar or passing by outside could find something to like too.