Review: Unwed Sailor w/Cybris on June 18, 2008 at The Village Tavern

Not too long ago fellow M'ers (here and there) turned me on to the sound of Unwed Sailor. I procured their latest release and enjoy it immensely. Shortly after hearing it I found out they were playing locally at the Village Tavern in nearby Mt. Pleasant, SC. So of course I had to go.

It was well worth the six bucks. There was no local opening act, which quite frankly I was happy about as local acts tend to be hit or miss (usually miss). Instead, there was only one opening act, Cybris from Chicago. Since Unwed Sailor is an instrumental group I was a little unsure how vocal-oriented Cybris would play, but my fears were soon put to rest. They put on a great show of angst-ridden guitar-laden indie rock. That's usually not my thing, to be honest, but they were very good. The female lead singer had a very emotional and expressive voice which suited the songs quite well. The drummer and lead guitarist were both very into it and put on great shows as well. The bass player, honestly, kind of seemed to be phoning it in, and his playing was the one problem I had with them. Not that he played poorly, but that most of his bass lines were one note lines over and over. Boring to play, I'm sure. But they were very enjoyable and also very personable, as my friend and I talked to them for quite a while afterwards, especially the guitarist (he had some cool effects running and we wanted to know what they were, which opened into a discussino of many things).

Unwed Sailor was next, and they were even better live than I was expecting. I love the new slate of instrumental-only rock that has been coming out for the past decade or so, and they are a solid entry to that legacy. In contrast to Cyrbis the bass was front and center for this band--not dominating in the music but definitely melodic and all over the place. The four musicians played their hearts out for a sadly sparse crowd. Jonathan Ford, the bassist and frontman, told me later they play that way no matter how many people are listening, and I told him we could tell. They honestly seemed to be having a great time. Many of their songs have a great groove to them, and some of these grooves were extended for them to play on and on.

One of the best things I can say about the whole show is that even though the crowd was small, those who were there listened with rapt attention for the entire time.

Check out Unwed Sailor's newest album on bloodtea's page at http://bloodtea.multiply.com/music/item/725