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Bottom of the Hill October 13, 2002 Review by Jake Thomas I believe this is the first time I've ever gone to a Bottom of the Hill show on a Sunday afternoon where the bbq was actually served. Seems like it ends up getting put off more often than not, and all of those times seem to correlate with all my Sunday afternoon visits to this shrine to live music. I didn't even eat anything, it's just nice to know it's there. If you do eat, the show is quite a deal - 3 bands and food for 6 or 7 bucks. It's almost worthwhile even if you aren't crazy about the bands. When I landed my private helicopter on the helipad out back and got inside, Benton Falls were already playing. About half way through their set, I would guess. I didn't know shit about this band before the show. Immediately after their sound hit my ears, one term came to mind - emo. Over the years, I've listened to a lot of stuff that falls under the umbrella of this genre; some good, some bad, and some just plain awful. These guys fall closer to the good category as far as I'm concerned; if they had been around 7 or 8 years ago when I was following this type of music much more closely, they would have probably been one of my favorites. As it is, even though I don't listen to the stuff so much anymore, I found them to be rather enjoyable, and somewhat reminiscent of Braid or The White Octave. In other words, more to the punk end of the spectrum, without being pop-punk or whiny as a lot of bands playing this type of music end up. Next up was Minus the Bear, a band who I've been enjoying quite a bit recently. Their EP that came out not too long ago, 'This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic', has been on regular rotation at my house for a month now. And let me tell you, they were great. I expect big things from them in the future, and wouldn't be surprised if they got rather popular. Their sound is a great mish-mash of various influences - cure oriented keyboards, vocals that are reminiscent of J. Robbins of Jawbox/Burning Airlines (also reminded me of Davey from Promise Ring, only much less whiny), occasionally mathy beats, and an overall post-punk feel that sounds like lots of bands, but no one specifically. When listening to the album, I remember remarking one time 'Where are those weird noises coming from?'. Turns out that the one guitarist spends 90% of his time playing those odd Van Halen-style notes that are done by tapping the neck of the guitar with both hands. I'm sure there is a technical name for this, but I haven't a clue. It also appeared that the keyboard player had one of those Kaos Pads (or however you spell it), which does some really strange things to the sound. All this aside, a great rocking band, who's full length I'm eagerly anticipating. Plus, it's going to have a song on it called 'Monkey Knife Fight' - what more could you want? ©2002 playinginfog.com |