So how did you spend your Saturday? I was invited to come out and see, listen to and support my friends play their first official gig at at a fund raiser. So on a cool fall afternoon I headed out to Matthews to the Skirmish at Stumptown to hang out and listen.
The event was a fund raiser for Presbyterian Hospital for Leukemia and Lymphoma. In all they got four bands to participate and they got Rock University to sponsor it. It’s the first annual of this event and I think for a first one and competing with Juried Arts Festival the turn put was pretty good. It wasn’t huge but it was ok. The park could easily handle more people. The location was nice and in spite of it being a bit on the cool side it was a pleasant day.
The first band up was Fusebox Poet and they were good. Most notable for me was their cover of Toto’s ‘Hold the Line’. I enjoyed their performance. Sorry guys I don’t remember the other songs they played. They did have a merchandise table so I’m going to bet they have a website.
Next up was Something Clever. They looked to be about mid-high school age. Aside from their age and the fact that they were good. What stuck with me was that they opened with the Alice in Chains song ‘Man in the Box’, they had a female lead singer an a female lead guitar player. You Go Girls! The final notable for this group is that their last song was due to get some local radio play the next day, it’s their first original and it’s playing on Reverb Nation. I was surprised and impressed.
Up next was Mayhem Loves Company. These guys looked to be about Junior High age and they played at least as well as The Dropkick Murphies do at a live show. In fact they kind of remind me of them in some of their style though maybe not substance. I wasn’t paying very good attention to the intro but I’m pretty sure they are a punk band. As I listened it turned out that for their style they are pretty good and they even managed a decent version of ‘Destroyer’ by the Kinks. And a tip of the hat to the Bass player who was, yes, you guessed it, female.
The last band, Horsefly was my favorite, for a few reasons. First, they are my friends and I get to jam with them periodically. Second, I could hear and understand their vocals best. And finally, I knew the songs. So all bias aside, they sounded great. Their lead singer rips it up when they play ‘House of the Rising Sun’ and the original tune they did was cool. It was right there in with the rest of what they play. They rapped it up with a whaling version of Cream’s ‘White Room’. I even caught some of the kids from the earlier bands paying respect by hanging out and watching.
My friends, the band, Horsefly
Even though it was cold by the end of the event it was a great time and all the bands sounded great. I was really impressed. All the bands were really great!