March 8, 2003
Seeing as how I am habitually tardy (I guess they don't have a 12 step program for that) I missed the first two bands on the bill. Which is really a pity because they were The United and Coke is Better with Bourbon... the only two really loud bands on the compilation.
I did, however, make it in time to catch Hit By A Bus, who have come a long way since the first time I saw them play about a year ago. I have to give major props to their keyboardist, Giovanna, who has impressive talent as a singer. The crowd involvement from this band was good, they added their own twist to the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, and asked the crowed to sing along.
Then there was Foma. They had no set list and sort of winged it on stage. The trasitions from song to song were slow and it seemed like the band spent more time conversing with eachother and making inside jokes rather than involving the crowd. They had an interesting sound, but could use more time polishing it up.
Follow took the stage and although the crowd was still sparse they played with high energy, especially the guitarist. The drummer of this band is very talented and was good as well. And to end their set, the singer proceeded to trip and fall off stage, but it was funny and he brushed it off like no big deal.
The next band to take the stage was Starseed; I believe that this is the first local band I've seen with a singing female drummer. Starseed is a very talented band and although they didn't go from song to song very smoothly, they kept up the energy and got the crowd excited. The vocals of this band are unique and the overall sound of this is pop-ish with a slight country twang.
Following Starseed was Oktober People, who had been drinking since the show began, which was obvious by their preformance. This band was slightly dissapointing after the engery of Starseed. Oktober People's songs were long and monotonous, and the lack of vocals made it worse.
At this time, the crowd had grown considerably larger and Ki played their set. Starting off with a lively song, the band was able to revive the lost vigor from Starseed. They left the crowd pumped up for Feels Like Sunday.
FLS were great crowd pleasers. Their songs were easy to listen and dance to and the singer was charismatic. They even added a song to their set at the request of a fan. The entire audience was dancing and having a good time.
The last band to play was Unit 7 Drain. Most of the audience members had opted to be disrespectful to this last band, and walked away after FLS. Regardless, Unit 7 Drain played well and didn't seem phased. Being a three piece band, their sound was cleaner than a lot of the more extravagant bands.
On the whole, this was a good show, even though there were a few bands that I could have done without and a couple that I missed. It's just really too bad that there wasn't a larger turn out.