A Battle with a BIG Surprise…
Thursday night I went out to the Battle of the Bands first semi-finals night to hear three bands
Melodrose,
Myndsick and
Relapse Trigger battle for advancement to Freakfest. I was prepared for a night of screamo music, having heard these bands before in the first rounds of the Battle of the Bands.
Melodrose took the stage first. Playing an emotional angst-ridden set to fans. One thing I really like about Melodrose is that even though their songs have their emotional screamo moments, I can still hear a melody, I can hear the uniquely written lyrics, and I can feel the emotion and their message. Every word of their songs are not screamo-- Shane, the lead singer, actually sings. Melodrose’s unique blend of song with screamo is refreshing among the screamo genre bands.
After Melodrose’s set… I haphazardly watched as the next band set up while I talked to friends. I noticed an old upright piano had appeared on stage.
“How does a piano fit in with screamo music?” I asked
NL who was there reporting and reviewing on the music scene for his
music review page.
“A piano?” NL asked.
“Yeah… there’s one on the stage.” I explained.
“I don’t know, but it should be interesting.” NL said.
I continued talking with friends, the piano forgotten for the moment. Forgotten until I heard an emotionally melodic piano ballad begin. NL and I stopped talking and quickly gravitated to the front of the stage. This was not screamo music! This was brilliant! This was so unexpected on a night of angst-ridden screamo.
“Who are these guys?” I asked NL.
“I don’t know, but they’re really good!” NL said.
We continued to watch and listen in awe as the unknown band played the rest of their set. A musical set unlike anything I had heard in Bakersfield to date! With a
Wilco-like musical and lyrical style, this band was a truly talented group of musicians. Not only were they extraordinary musicians, but they had a really cool look too. They were a band with style as well as talent. We stood mesmerized and amazed along with the crowd at the Montgomery World Plaza. Clapping in sheer delight at the end of each song. Their set finale
Grammarian was amazing! The Bakersfield crowd did not know what to make of the musical brilliance they had just heard.
The unknown BIG surprise band was:
World Leader Pretend from New Orleans. An actual ‘signed’ touring band. A band promoting their upcoming debut album
Punches. A band that will actually be performing with Wilco in the near future at a jazz festival in New Orleans.
World Leader Pretend is a band on its way to making it to the BIG time. They were selling four song EP’s, buttons, stickers and other band merchandise. I quickly made my way to their table and bought an EP. Four bucks what a steal! I can’t wait for the debut album
Punches to come out! I definitely recommend that everyone check out World Leader Pretend’s
website and listen to their music. Two days later and I still can’t get enough of their EP.
After the genius of World Leader Pretend… it was back to screamo music.
Myndsick and
Relapse Trigger took the stage giving their Bakersfield fans loud angst-ridden screamo music they love to slam dance too. I always expect those mosh pits to break out in a WWF wrestling match at any moment. I just try to stay clear of the moshers and watch in awe.
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