Thursday, March 10, 2011

Mike Fiore (of Faces On Film) @ Habitat House, Black Hondo/ Smile Now Cry Later/ Rafter @ Bar Pink- 03.02.11

Last Wednesday was a split evening, both location- wise and musically. Stop #1 was a cozy attic set from Mike Fiore (of Boston- based Faces On Film) at Habitat House, followed by stop #2 for more uptempo performances by Black Hondo, Smile Now Cry Later and Rafter at Bar Pink. More after the jump...




In the latest installment of Habitat House's featured musical acts, Mike Fiore made the trip from the great Northeast (Go Sox!) accompanied by his resonator guitar, easygoing melodies and a few spot-on covers. The show was night and day compared to the last go around at Habitat House. Having it in the attic (which is a great place to gather a group of thirty or so people) was the most obvious difference- apart from that, there were two monitors that Mike was plugged in to which did wonders for the sound and there was a movie rolling (The Holy Mountain- interesting choice) via projector that provided an excellent backdrop. The show got off to a little bit of a late start, which was disappointing because of the 10pm cut off time, but proved to be worth the wait. Everything considered, the highlight of the evening had to be his cover of Clinic's 'Distortions'. Once everything finished up, a couple friends of mine mentioned that they were heading up to Bar Pink to check out their mutual friends' band. Oh, and that Rafter was also playing. Sold.

We arrived to a moderately crowded bar for the City Beat Local Music Party just before Black Hondo took the stage for an hour or so of their guitar-heavy psych rock. I had the pleasure of meeting a few of the band members after their set finished up and they were all genuinely nice folks. Next Friday (03.18) they play the role of opening act once again at the Casbah- go check them out. Smile Now Cry Later, the brain child of Rafter's protege Lizeth Santos, hit the stage next. I appreciate Lizeth very much as Rafter's backup singer, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around her solo show- a sampler accompanied by a snare drum just doesn't do it for me. She definitely makes up for it with her on-stage energy though- the girl didn't stop moving the whole evening. Rafter Roberts finished up the evening with another awesome display of high energy experimental rock. What else can I say about Rafter that hasn't been said already. The guy just plain kicks ass.

Mike Fiore:



Black Hondo:




Rafter:





For more from the evening, click here and the rest of my concert photography click here.

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All Images copyright © Nate Vandermeulen, All Rights Reserved.
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