Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Screaming Mechanical Brain at Rock House November 9th

This post has been put off long enough. Sorry about the delay, there has been a lot going on. I almost died and such. Well not really, but I was pretty sick for a week after this event, and stuff. God I hate giving you excuses. I suck at life. Anyway, without further ado, my review of Lazy Hawk Promotion's show, featuring Screaming Mechanical Brain and others.

So first off, this show, unlike most of the shows I have reviewed on here, was not at the Emerson. Instead, it was at the Rock House off of Keystone and Hanna. I like this place. I've only been here once before for a Harley Poe concert which also featured Mr. Clit and the Pink Cigarettes. 

The Rock House is a bar, but they really put a lot of effort into making it a nice local music venue as well. They have a good stage location so everyone can see no matter where they are in the bar.  Plenty of places to sit, fantastic drink specials, enough space to move around, their service is really excellent too. I recommend this place for any local show. rockhouseindy.com 

So I went up there with my good friend Mike, who is my Bcast co-host, and we met up with some other awesome friends. Some other guy sat with us and bought a round of Coors, which I thought was pretty funny since I hate beer, and Mike doesn't drink. It's ok though cause Liz does and we just traded bottles so I'd have an empty one. Problem solved.

We got there in time to see the last song by Bizarre Noir. I thought they were fun and engaging. They weren't the kind of band to jump around and stuff, but it was a good opener to get into the swing of things. There would be plenty of rowdiness later.

Coffinsville kinda reminds me of a mix of Primus and Metallica. The lyrics aren't complicated, but the music itself is decent. They played a song called Deathrider, which I can't find on Youtube, so I guess you'll just have to go see them sometime. I could really tell that they are musicians for the love of the music. They're clearly not writing masterpieces here, they're having fun.

Ideamen were probably the best band all night to be honest. As they were doing their sound test, I told Liz, "If they're half as good as their sound test then they are going to be awesome". And I was right. They're really energetic, and have 7 members, but only 6 were there at the time. The dude on keyboard, yes they have a keyboardist, is super dancy. The only gripe I really have about them is that's their singer seriously reminds me of an ex who I do not get along with, and that was hard to overlook. But I can't hold that against them really. They have kindof a jazzy, ska sound. I'd love to see these guys again.

And then, there was Screaming Mechanical Brain. These guys were the headliner I guess. Their name was the biggest on the poster. I don't know. I guess a lot of people like them or something. I just didn't get them though. They had good music, and good audience interactions between songs. The lead guy liked to say a lot of things that didn't make any sense, like he had tourettes or something. You all might be interested in them a lot more than I was. I'm not saying they're bad by any means, I just didn't get the overall image of the band. I mean one dude was dressed up like the Mysery Machine from Scooby Doo, and all the way on the other end of the stage, another guy looked like some kind of weird, gay biker or something with lipstick smeared all over the side of his face. And there was everything in between. I was confused, and didn't know where to look, and it was distracting from the music.

The last band, which is a little weird since the headliner already played, Exit the System, who I can't find anything about online. If you know them, put links in the comments or something.  I really liked this band.
Their setup was really interesting. It was all dark and goth, and they had costumes which were all black and white and ripped up. The singer's costume looked like an assassin hood. I thought it was cool. The music reminded me of Orgy; industrial and electronic, but heavier than Orgy. They had a very cool sound, but in reality it was just two guys on tom drums and a singer and a synthesizer for making all the industrial bits... so most of the music was synthesized. Don't hold that against them though, it was still good.

They even had a neat light and laser show. Sadly, with all light shows, they typically use a fog machine, and I'm kindof allergic to the fog, so we had to leave before these guys were finished. Would have been ok if they opened a door, or had some fans going or something. I suck at life. I can't even handle a fog machine, ugh.

Anyway, it was all around a pretty good time. Check out some shows at the Rock House sometime. If you're in a local band, play there if you're old enough.