| Image by Frank Hamilton
Baltimore, home of Natty Boh, might be one of the only places in the country where Pabst Blue Ribbon doesn't have the market cornered on cheap beer popular among the young, hip, and broke. And either because of or despite that fact, the company brought its
promotional campaign to one of Baltimore's hipster hotbeds, Hampden, to sponsor a show at Frazier's Feb. 18. In a silly and transparent attempt to connect with the brand's counterculture following, several tables in Frazier's were set up with art supplies for people to create artwork about or "inspired" by the watery brew, and we're not sure why anyone would partake other than out of drunken boredom. We wanted to see some of the bands on the bill, so we pulled up to the bar and ordered a Yuengling.
First, Philadelphia's
played some jangly, stomping rock tunes. But more than any of their songs, it was frontman Brad Carney's deep, bluesy yowl that was the most memorable thing about the band, if for no other reason than that we don't hear many singers these days who remind us of Glenn Danzig.
Our main reason for checking out the show was a local band we caught a brief glimpse of
that left us wanting to see more.
is an intriguing band that can't help but stand out on any indie-rock bill: three women, singing and playing keyboards and saxophone, one of them wearing a glittery red dress and blond bob wig, backed by two men on bass and drums. The band's music is essentially classic piano pop, with an occasional left turn into something darker, like the lurching groove of "Backwards Forwards" that closed its set. It's hard to imagine how that sound meshed with Gunwife Gone's former collaborator, local human beatbox genius Shodekeh, when the band was originally called Walkout a couple years ago. We got a better idea of how that worked on Monday, when the band coaxed Shodekeh out of the audience to substitute for the rhythm section on one song--his mouth provided intricate beats for an otherwise slow, stately waltz. And given that GG's recorded output so far consists only of three songs on a self-titled EP, it was good to hear some more promising material that we hope to hear on a full-length sometime soon.
The show closed with another local band we'd
but weren't as impressed with the first time around, the MacGregor Burns Band. We'd hate to knock it a second time for no good reason, but we're slowly beginning to come around to its charms, even if the lead guitarist still appears to be operating on a skill level several planes higher than the rest of the band. There's a comforting, Zen-like simplicity to Burns' untrained voice and lyrics such as "if a blade of grass can get through asphalt, I can get through anything." And as much as we disliked MBB's big uptempo sing-along "Enjoy The Ride" at first, that damn catchy chorus is still rattling around our heads days later, for better or worse.
