The Stork Club May 13, 2005 Review by Jake Thomas I saw Lower Forty Eight for the first time on their last gig with their original bassist, who left for reasons I’m unsure of and too lazy to do the research for. It is now the end of another era – their next bassist, Grady, is leaving for Canada with his old lady, and this was the band’s next-to-last show with him. And it was a damn good outing as near as I could tell…the band rocked, but then again they always do. It was a short set it seemed…a few tracks from “Skin Failure” and a few I didn’t know – perhaps a new album is in the works? As with most Oakland shows I have been to, the place wasn’t packed but those who were there had more enthusiasm than most packed SF shows…not sure why that is, maybe there are some rock sociologists who’d like to do a study and report back to me on it. I stick around for a chunk of Darediablo, a three-piece outfit from NYC. I’ve known about them for a while, as a friend burned me an earlier CD of theirs and I ended up reviewing their more recent one for Shredding Paper. Although their older work is decent, their newer material has gotten way too proggy and keyboard heavy, but I was curious how this would translate in a live setting. The result – it actually sounded pretty good, the keyboards weren’t nearly as loud in the live mix, and the clean noodly guitar from the album had a much gruffer sound live. All in all, I liked them much more in the live setting than their more recent recorded output. --- Read our previous Lower Forty-Eight reviews: December 12, 2003 @ Hemlock Tavern June 12, 2003 @ 40th Street Warehouse January 3, 2003 @ Edinburgh Castle August 23, 2003 @ Toxic Beach ©2005 playinginfog.com |