Being an aunt has been filling up my days and thus my recaps have been behind. Sorry, but gotta live first, post last. Anyway, the show on Thursday was fantastic, and even better when I realized that Peroni's are still $3 at the Belly Up, though the "Beer of the Month" sign is gone. I got there early; I didn't wanna miss a thing. I was impressed how many of the crowd initially seemed to be there just for the Truckee Brothers, though not surprised because they're such a tight band and have been contributing to San Diego music for a long time now. Vocally and lyrically their music has got a good tinge of folkiness which weaves nicely with the long, more classic rock grooves of the guitar work.
The Comas, from New York, were up second and were also impressive. The male vocalist has a higher pitch to his singing that at a lot of times reminded me of Brian of Silversun Pickups. That, to me, speaks for itself as a compliment from me because it's no secret I love SSPU. In the same way, the vocals are layered against a female vocalist and the band got their share of love from the crowd, too.
For their finale, Great Northern came onstage to bash around some drums and tambourines along with the Comas and everyone on stage was enjoying the energy and it gave the crowd a taste of what was to come.
Great Northern came to the stage with their dreamy lush music and while everyone sang along to home, it was nice to hear people singing along to other songs for this second San Diego performance by a band we've seemed to adopt as one of our own. Nice to see the LA band get some love. I didn't take too many pictures as Eenie Meenie records was kind enough (and smart enough) to allow me to put Natalie on the list to take some pics, and I had told the label I'd be YouTubin more than anything. I put those videos in this post if you haven't seen them. There are two more I hope to post if I can get a service that will allow me to upload more than 100 megs (and I still cant get VMix to embed, though they also sponsored the night and I wish I could make better use of their site.)
We were up front doing our thing and bumped into my concert going bud Greg Padgett who was kind enough to write about the night from his perspective:
"Los Angeles based 4 piece band Great Northern create dreamy pop-rock with vocals and harmonies about as sun-drenched as the California coast, juxtaposed with swirling keyboards and guitars that can simultaneously bring about feelings of rapturous ecstasy and impending doom. In other words, songs that would make any fan of songs from "Grays Anatomy" and shoegazers of the world proud. At least thats the feeling I got from their concert at The Belly Up Tavern this past Thursday.
This show was a part of the FM 94.9 "About The Music Concert Series", as well. Playing songs almost exclusively from their outstanding and aptly titled full-length album "Trading Twilght for Daylight"; the set featured down-tempo gems such as "Our Bleeding Hearts", City Of Sleep", and the absolutely stunning "Low Is A Height". The title to that song pretty much sums their sound, in my opinion. They also played up-tempo rockers "Just A Dream", "Telling Lies", and "Home". They closed the set with two rousing rockers "The Middle", which featured a Beatlesque vocal distortion to go along with gorgeous, sweeping vocals that could wash over you like the waves from the Pacific Ocean across the street from The Belly Up. They closed with the guitar heavy, head-banger "Into The Sun", which featured help from members from opening act, The Comas.
After a short break, the band came out and closed the show with the blissfully gorgeous, down-temp "Babies", which is the closing song on their album, as well. I highly reccommend their record, it is one of the very best I've heard this year and definitley reccommend seeing their amazing live show when you get a chance. Some of their songs are more than likely going to end up on either a movie or television show soundtrack someday soon which will catapault them into superstardom, hopefully ones that will do their music and sound justice. Definitely check out their live show when you get a chance at an intimate venue, before they get whisked away to much larger ones; if they keep up the momentum from "Trading Twilight For Daylight", it will only be a matter of time.
Also, 94.9 does an outstanding job of setting up shows by up and coming bands in initmate settings such as The Belly Up at very affordable prices, so whenever you see one of those "About The Music" shows come along the pike, definitely check them out! Its probably the only time you'll will get a chance to see alot of the artists they feature in small venues before they hit the big-time. "
Well said, Greg. I love this band and look forward to them coming back to town sooner rather than later, and I know that they love the reception that San Diego has given them both times they've played here. By the way, the record label has used my video on the band's
Virb page here.
After the show I closed up my evening at The Pink Elephant which had a good crowd and seems to be doing well off the fact that Bluefoot has to close at 12 these days, so it wasn't all hipster-ed out and the music was background noise and allowed for conversation which is lacking in so many bars these days. +++ for the Pink Elephant. Now I'm off to the Che for The One AM Radio. See you there...
