The Redwalls and Robbers on High Street

At the last minute we decided to skip the Fiery Furnaces show and head to Iota to see The Redwalls (above) and The Robbers On High Street, but up first...

Baby Teeth

It appeared they bought their shirts at the Grand Ole Opry gift shop. This is unfortunate. Shortly after we got there something busted on the drum kit. While the lead singer tried to kill time with small talk and banter, we escaped to the back patio. I'm confident we didn't miss much.

Robbers on High Street

As the Robbers prepared to go on we settled at a table not far from the stage. In fact, it was the only table in the concert room. As someone who's lazy and finds standing a chore, I was pretty happy to have a seat for the show. It gave the even a dinner theater feel (as Potsy pointed out) and who doesn't like that? As the Robbers took the stage I noticed the collective weight of the band was around 132 lbs., putting them in the Featherweight division. As for the music, they have potential to be a Cruiserweight in Indie Rock but their performance was equal to their weight class. The Crispin Glover look-alike on bass should have been a dead giveaway.

Their music is most often compared to Spoon, but they're Spoonish in a Cold War Kids way - enjoyable but fall far short of the real thing. The first set of songs with the lead singer on acoustic guitar blended together. Nothing stood out as unique or distinct. After the singer switched to the electric guitar things picked up. There was an up tick in energy but it wasn't enough to get the crowd going. They finally cranked up the rock on their final song. It included a superfuzz guitar solo that brought the crowd to life just as their set was ending. They should have started with that song and then built off of it. Overall it wasn't bad, just not very engaging. I give Robbers On High Street a Rock Club rating of 4.9.

The Redwalls

They took the stage with a confident, energetic, and some might say, pompous attitude. They're a stylish group of lads (except the drummer's frat guy look) who've embraced the rock star image. I doubted I'd enjoy these guys because of their classic rock bent. Plus, I saw the lead singer leave the bathroom without washing his hands. Seriously, wash your fucking hands already. Anyway, they started off with "Hangman". Within 10 seconds they managed to get the crowd grooving and dancing, something the Robbers couldn't manage their entire set.

Unfortunately, Jimbromski couldn't make the show. He would've loved this band. They played '60's inspired Brit-Rock with style. It's right up his alley. He also would've approved of their guitar choices. They had a Rickenbacker looking bass and the guitarist actually played a modified parallelogram. They were wise to avoid the Flying V. Personally, I enjoyed how they continued to rock as their roadie scurried around the stage checking wires and setting up guitars. When we form our band, first thing I'm doing is hiring a guy to pretend to fix things onstage during the middle of songs. There's just something classic about that (and funny).

And now for Rock Club's favorite game: Separated at Birth. This was a good one. The lead singer is a dead ringer for Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns. I thought Crispin Glover on bass for the Robbers was solid, but the Steve Nash look-alike wins. Okay, let's wrap this shit up. The Redwalls put on a lively and fun show. It went 3 or 4 songs too long, but that's better than going 90 minutes too long (check back for my Smashing Pumpkins review). I give The Redwalls a Rock Club rating of 7.1. I would've gone a higher, but the bassist said their new album was "going to drop" on Oct. 9th. I had to subtract a few points. That phrase just needs to die.

One review down, two to go. Up Next: the Fake Accents.