Thursday, August 30, 2007

Wednesday Recap: Charissa Saverio, Swedish Models, Marc Ford

I spent my Wednesday sleeping in, meeting my sister and my niece and Sara at Ponce's (where I finally tried their cheeseburger. yum) then headed up with Natalie to the Belly Up for the last of the Belly Up's anniversary series. The funny thing was that The Swedish Models wanted me to take pics, but there were so many other photogs with such better cameras that I felt completely useless. We hung backstage for a while and then went out for Charissa Saviero, who admitted that she had just put a band together in two weeks. I was happy to see "Stinky"...Mr. Jeff Aafedt (sp?) the drummer of The Rugburns, doing his thing in this band. Charissa is a Brit singer songwriter who brings to mind 80 rock chicks while also keeping it fresh and new. This particular song, she said, was written by a friend. While I normally have issues with songs that use a common slang as their main chorus lines, I thought Charissa rocked well throughout her set... I just happened to capture the main ballad of their set.

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Nat and I got there early in the night and the Swedish Models let us backstage to (probably in their poor interest) have a couple beers.

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We just tried to absorb the minimal A/C air coming through the backstage room. This is their setlist, preplanned on the fridge.

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The Swedish Models have so much talent between their five members, and with the bonus of the amazing sound at the Belly Up, I think there were people who were already fans of the band there eating them up, and new fans who wondered how they might not have heard of them before. They really are that good and make people wonder where they can hear more.
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I caught this song midsong, but I wanted to post it anyway, because the big thing about the Swedish Models is that they have two drummers... Andrew McNally and Dustin Paul, and they share a kick drum. My video may suck, but the band does not, and hopefully it gives a good feel for why there is so much talk about this band.





So the Swedes only have 7 songs at this point, but if you count the three false endings of their "epic" song, then I would say they have 10. Clearly they have enough buzz in town because it seemed more people were there to see them than the headliner, but eventually people filtered back into the Belly Up to see Marc Ford.

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It was apparent that Marc has his share of audience, being around for so many years, but it wasn't really my thing. He's an amazing guitarist, but there was so much "wah, wah, wah" with the pedals that I thought of it as something dudes appreciate but for me, not as much. Plus Nat has to work so we headed off after a couple songs.

After I left Nat's, I stopped by the Pink Elephant but there was nothing for me there, so I came back to Kensington then visited my friends at the Ken Club.

Now I'm home in the comfort of my home watching sleazy DreamGirlz commercials while I watch shit TV and I thought I'd mention one more thing. Apparently Kensington is getting a new sign.

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There will be a vote among Kensington residents on the sign replacement. The new sign has more decorative posts to match the light posts of the neighborhood as well as the stone pillars that can be seen around town, in areas like Uni Heights and Hillcrest. So the vote will be between a Kensington sign that arcs and one that hangs straight. I'm particular to the straight one, based on the renderings I've seen, but in a way, it is a little sad to see the current sign go, even though when you look at it, it looks like shoestrings hold it in place. Eh. I look forward to getting my ballot nonetheless.

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