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Bottom of the Hill January 20, 2003 Review by Jake Thomas I really, really like Young People, but I don't know why. Well, I guess I know why, but still it perplexes me for some reason, because if you described their sound to me in words, I don't think I would look forward to hearing it at all, yet when the sounds actually hit your ear it's like...like...shit, I don't know what it's like. It's real damn good. It makes me smile, and that counts for a lot. So bear this all in mind when I attempt to talk about their show, because it certainly won't sound as good as if you just go out and see them live for yourself. Mostly, it's the voice, although I find the music interesting enough that I would probably listen to them if they were just an instrumental band. Katie's voice sounds like some sort of Bjork/Chan Marshall hybrid, but I think she's the far superior singer of the three regardless of what anyone else might say. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - most of the time, I don't like women singers. It usually ends up sounding either too cutesy or too mean and gruff for my liking. But when I hear a woman's voice that I do like, I usually like it a whole lot. I could probably say, at least off the top of my head right now, that Katie from Young People has my favorite female voice in all of music as of right now. That's a pretty outstanding feat as far as I'm concerned, considering the sheer amount of music floating around out there in the ether. As for the show - they were great, her voice was great, the new songs were great, everything was great. If I had to gripe about anything, it would be that they didn't play a lot of older songs, but that happens all the time with almost every band so I'm not even sure if that registers as a gripe anymore. The new stuff sounded good though, and I'm looking forward to their new album, which I believe is coming out sometime this year. Hopefully sooner rather than later though. After them came King Cobra. I don't know anything about this group, and when I tried to look them up on the internet I couldn't really find anything. Did find some information on the hair metal band from the mid-80's, King Kobra, real good stuff. Anyways, this King Cobra wasn't hair metal, but they did rock pretty hard. Actually, they're the most rockin' two-piece female prog rock band I've ever heard. Not that I can think of any others, but still...the guitarist was a badass, and the drummer was good, too and played a pretty elaborate stand up kit and had this crazy headset tied to her head with a bandanna to sing in to. There was a lot of sameness to their sound from what my ears were hearing, but it wasn't bad. I remember at one point thinking 'They sound a whole shit load like Rush', only to have them play a Rush cover. How you like them apples? ©2003 playinginfog.com |