I don't go out on a Wednesday night very often, but I knew this was going to be a good show. I've seen Followers and Fever Sleeves before, but the other two bands were new to me.

I got to the Casbah a bit later than I wanted to, and only managed to catch a couple songs of Marasol's set. By the time I got a beer and sat down to listen to a song, they were done. It's a shame because what little I heard sounded good, and they had some bright lights set up which would have made for some different shots than the usual. Oh well, next time...

I don't think they'll be too upset, since they were getting plenty of photographic attention from Marty Watson, otherwise known as Elementary Photography. Marty has a very different style from mine, and that deserves its own post.

Followers were up next.





Last time I shot these guys, Chris from Fing was their keyboard player. This guy is playing with them now, although to be honest, they keys aren't the main focus for me. The interplay between Gabriel Sundy's baritone sax and the guitars is what makes this band.



It's a great sound.



Simeon Flick is a consumate musician. He's more known in the San Diego acoustic scene, but can play all the instruments as evidenced by his solo CD (which my friend and former Red Light Runner bandmate, Mike Brown, did artwork for). Click on Simeon's link for some video of their opening song. I'm not even going to try and describe it.




Gabriel also plays guitar on some songs. That's nice, but I can't get enough of that low sax.



I got another beer between sets. While at the bar, I watched Ben Johnson make a proper martini- filling the glass with ice water while assembling the other ingredients and just barely coating the inside of the glass with vermouth. Besides being a good bartender, he's an excellent performer. I've mentioned before how I'm a big fan of Hostile Combover, but I still have to catch The Long and Short of It live...


I'd only heard one song by Modern Rifles off the Black Box Compliation CD before this night.



Good stuff, but I can hear their influences a bit too clearly in their music. Check out their myspace and see if you agree or not.






Whoa, all black and white.




Phew. That's better.

I had a nice chat with a couple guys from Swim Party between sets, their guitarist successfully defended his thesis earlier that day so I guess it's Dr. Swim Party now.

Fever Sleeves is not going to get accused of unoriginality by anyone. Their fractured song structures and stream-of-consciousness lyrics remind me of one of my favorite bands of all time, Barkmarket, if nothing else in the music does.











Their 7" includes a CD with a bonus track, well worth a listen. I'm not sure, but I think Futuristic Killings is a rant against frat boys and their inability to think for themselves. Tigers for Hire is defintely about hiring tigers, no question. There's a new full length album coming out soon. I'm pretty sure I'll be going to that CD release party.