12 Galaxies September 8, 2004 Review by Jake Thomas It was a fair Wednesday evening, and I decided to get out of the house to catch some local rock down at the 12 Galaxies. Now, I had only been to this place once and it was during the day, but it seemed welcoming; and indeed it was, a fine club with a nice layout and good sound that I hope sticks around for a while. Plus the fact that I can easily walk there from my house doesn’t hurt… When I got in Society of Rockets was about halfway through their set. I’ve seen these guys (and gal) a few times (they were formerly known as The Shimmer Kids Underpop Society, and I always want to write them up; and every time I start to do it, I’m at a loss for words. The main reason for this is in the groups ability to sound like so many things and no one else all at the same time – they do such a good job of melding their influences that it’s a tough go for the typical touchstones lazy music writers like myself often employ, such as describing what other bands the group in question sound like. Of course, I’ll try it anyways…the one group that always pops into my head is Calexico, only swap out the Southwest/Mexican influence for something more akin to 60’s soul acts or early Rolling Stones (minus the giant lips). From time to time, I even hear a bit of Afghan Whigs floatingaround in there. These are all good things in my book, and they are a damn fine band; it always surprises me at how under-attended their shows are, considering how well their music would probably be received if only heard by the right tastemakers to then hype to the crowds. The Hut Dwellers had the middle slot, a three piece of gentlemen who like a good freak out in their songs, yet still manage to keep the compositions at pop song length. It helps when you have a guitar player with some of the fastest hands I’ve ever seen – when he gets going it’s like a blur up there, the most rapid strumming I’ve ever seen! Again, this is a band I’ve seen before and manages to defy easy pigeonholing – one friend noted a Minutemen similarity, but that was due in part to the outfit of the guitarist mentioned above, Dave. The comparison that I always think of are those house bands you’d see in old Russ Meyer’s films, only those groups usually involved swirly lights. Anyways, they play a very unique brand of psychedelic pop, and they play it very well. The headliners this evening was a Led Zepplin cover band that went by the name of Heavy Hindenburg (this name made me laugh for a few days afterwards the more I thought about how silly it was). Apparently a couple of the members were also a part of Alice Donut, but I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing this tribute act become their main group. To put it simply, they were great – and while the singer wasn’t spot on for Robert Plant, he was still good and made up for it by wielding a fake sword while he sang. The rest of the band was pretty much spot on…and quite impressively so. They even had wigs, cut to the same shape as the actual Led Zep guys (the John Paul Jones wig was especially funny) and some really entertaining between song banter. I can’t say that I’ ever been a huge cover band fan, but when you can do it this well it is definitely enjoyable, and I’d see them again in a heartbeat. --- ©2004 playinginfog.com |