When we were trying to decide what to do this past weekend, I mentioned to Heather that Luce Loft was hosting a string of shows and we decided to make a date night out of it on Friday. We came downtown early in order to eat first, and somehow wound up at the ridiculously overpriced Tilted Kilt. I guess they figure if they distract you with hot waitresses in push-up bras, you won't notice the prices. Somehow a burger, sandwich, and two drinks came to $50. At least we found free street parking and tickets to the show were only 5 bucks each.

This show was put on by Sezio, and while I'm not exactly sure what they do and how they normally use this space called Luce Loft, they do have a nice website the covers local arts and music. They are big fans of Swim Party.



I can't  believe I didn't buy their CD over the summer when I shot their CD release party. I've listened to it a few times now, and it's just getting more and more catchy with each listen.



I think this was Natalie's first full show with them and she definitely adds something to the music. I'm looking forward to hearing her on their next recording. I was in another band a few years ago that added a female keyboardist for no other reason than she was a friend, and that didn't work out so well.





This show was sold out, and I thought that it would be packed, but they did a smart thing and limited the show to 100 guests, which was enough to make the place seem full, but manageable to navigate. There were couches and huge bean bags for people to sit on, which was nice for the audience, but not so nice for photography since I had to sit down most of the time to stay out of the way. So, most shots are from a low angle. This was very much a listening show, they even closed down the bar during the performances.



 

Alex is a very interesting bass player to watch. He plays more than the standard root notes, incorporating tapping across the entire neck. I've read a few reviews that compare Swim Party's indie pop music to Pinback for a few reasons- twin vocals, sunny yet melancholy songwriting, but mostly because both bands have a bass player who steps out of the traditional bass role. But they play quite differently. Zach Smith strums chords primarily, more like a rhythm guitarist, while Alex breaks the chords up into arpeggios in different registers- a more horizontal approach. The bass tone on the CD doesn't really highlight his imaginative playing very well, but in this live setting it was easy to hear all the players' individual parts.



While it might not be totally obvious from the picture above, there were about twice as many girls as guys at this show. I think the guys in Swim Party are all taken, so they must have been here for The Silent Comedy.

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In between bands, they opened up the bar again and I made my way upstairs to get in the long line for the bathroom. I looked at The Silent Comedy setting up below, and I saw that they were all wearing old-timey clothes and hats, even sporting some handelbar moustaches. I turned to the girl behind me and asked if they're as country sounding as they look, and she reassured me that they're actually really good. It's a good thing I didn't check them out on Myspace before the show, or I might not have wanted to stay. By the time I made it to the front of the line, they announced that the band would be starting in a couple minutes, and that's when two of the members ran up the stairs and cut right in front of me. To be fair, they did ask politely first, but how are you gonna say no, and hold up the show? OK, they had better be REALLY good now.


I turned to Heather after the first song, fully expecting her to be tugging at my arm to leave. There was, after all, banjo and violin, two things that made us a bit uneasy at first. Not only did she want to stay, she said she wanted a CD.


Yeah, I think these guys have a certain effect on women.




It is a pretty good CD, and these guys are entertainers.







I couldn't help noticing that even though they have a drummer for other gigs, they didn't have him play this night. I know there was an issue with the volume, something Swim Party was very conscious of during their set, but I don't think they should have cut him out entirely. They even played one or two songs that were just acoustic guitar and two voices, leaving two members with nothing to do but stand around.


Maybe to most people this is a quieter, more intimate moment with a band when they strip down to the bare essentials, but to me it's just wasting resources when this was a quiet and intimate show to begin with.



They did end the show on a high note, with some foot stomping and singlalongs.



All in all, this was a fun night downtown. I hope Sezio puts on more shows like this, since the sound and ambiance is excellent.