DC ROCK CLUB
Long live rock, I need it every night

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Back in Business



Midlake - February 7, 2007 - Rock & Roll Hotel ($12)

After an unexpectedly long "break," Rock Club braved the bitter cold and headed back to the Rock & Roll Hotel to reacquaint ourselves with live music. I'll be honest. I'm growing tired of writing these reviews. So I'll keep this short, in keeping with our time at the show.

The show (for us) began with opening act St. Vincent, which consisted of a bespectacled young woman with a waivering voice and supporting musicians whom I never saw. There was a really good crowd present for this show (thanks to Jason Lee's Myspace.com posts, I suspect), so I couldn't see to the front of the stage to see who else was with her. But it was at least a drummer. The geeky indie rocker was compared to Lisa Low-eb (as it was pronounced to me), but I didn't think she had that same sweet/yet annoying quality that Ms. Loeb had. But maybe she did share the same annoying quality as I was the only one who stayed until St. Vincent was finished. The rest of RC went back upstairs for free-form rap and bongo music. St. Vincent wasn't bad. Not my favorite either, but I if owned a coffee shop, I'd let her play there.

Too much time was spent hooking up the 4 or 5 separate keyboards, the LCD projector and screen, but after a few ear-piercing bits of feedback faded Midlake began their set. The first thing I noticed about this band was their impressive harmonizing. Singer/songwriter Tim Smith & guitarist Eric Pulido do that very well together. And it fits well for the soft-rock that they basically play. This is the music that you play for your special lady as you get her drunk and light the candles. I'm sure that TJ and Jimbromski were pleased when "Roscoe" was the 2nd song performed. They had been talking about that tune before the show, and I'm sure it made it easier to leave early once they heard it.

I only stayed for about 6 songs or so before I felt like I had enough to get the point. I would have needed to listen to more of their studio albums to have stayed for the whole thing. The rock quotient was relatively low, which made it tough to stick with after a while. Overall, I thought they put on a high quality show. Good sound, good performance. But I wouldn't fight you for a ticket to their next show.

As for separated at birth, how about these two Erics?

2 comments:

Jimbromski said...

They were indeed soft. Some questions for you:

1--Why no rock score? We must assign a numerical ranking to everyone. Only then can we look back and break someone's balls for giving an overly-high score.

2--Did you put "break" in quotes, because someone came up to you and said, "Hey, RC is going on a break," and you were like, wow, I'm going to quote that guy in my next review? Was that it?

Jumbo Slice said...

Is it just me, or does it look like Eric Pulido is wearing make up in that picture? It's a wierd photo.