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| PHOTOS BY SAM HAVERSTICK Kernel staff |
| ANDRES KARU (above left) and Michael Ferentino of Love in Reverse captivates the audience during the opening . |
Club Gotham, with its skeletons, gargoyles and dim lighting, set the stage for an amazing opportunity for the bands to interact with the audience. In fact, Gotham gives the average Joe a chance to get up close to some great bands; the trip to Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is well worth it, whether you're seeing Love in Reverse or a community polka band.Both groups took advantage of this small club opportunity to captivate the audience in more of a storytelling setting than a concert stage. It only took Love in Reverse about a song and a half to get the crowd in it's hands. And until they left the stage, there was little to do but pay attention to the trio of Jersey-natives.
Love in Reverse's lead singer, Michael Ferentino, with his Michael Stipe-ish looks, attire, and motions, led the band in 45 minutes of explosive contrasts.
The first track off of their second release, Super Car, put the crowd into a trance; some were bobbing their heads, but most of the crowd stood at attention - taking in the sounds.
It was soon after this song that the crowd, formed around the bar and front door, migrated to the stage. Slowly but surely, the front part of the club had cleared, and the area just in front of the stage was filled with concert-goers.
Their music is the epitome of contrast. It shifts from a delicate electric guitar serenade to hard grunge rock in a beat.
One perfect example is the song "Dead Dog Lies," which the band dedicated to their tour-mates Republica and Gravity Kills. It begins as a rough guitar-shattering song, and shifts into a soft ballad. Then, just as you think they've decided on a genre to stick with, they launch into the guitar grunge that started the song.
After a brief set change on stage, Republica took the already captivated crowd and tossed it around. Led by the powerful Saffron, the Lexapalooza-veterans played through a good bit of the material from their self-titled first release.
Republica's mix of traditional electric guitar, techno and a bit of 70s retro mystified the audience, who was unsure whether to dance, mosh or stand in awe of their control.
Saffron made up their minds, after screaming at the audience in her thick London accent to dance.
The group, led onto the stage with an British opera track, started their portion of the evening with "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and "Blocke."
Saffron, who is a British version of No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, had the energy of a freight train, and the motion of a high school cheerleader on speed.
From the moment they hit the stage, until they meandered off, Saffron was bounding to the beat, leading the crowd to relax and enjoy the sounds. Her energy also rubbed off onto her fellow band members, who put the same amount of energy into their instruments.
One of the highlights of the concert was their performance of "Ready to Go," the single that has brought them into the U.S. music scene. The crowd was instantly energized, and the actions of the crowd from then to the end of the concert were almost as energetic as Saffron.
The group closed their show with the song "Holly," which left the crowd as drained as Saffron, who surged into overdrive and began jumping and dancing around the stage more and more.