Last Night's Show - Dungen/Woods, Rhythm Room, Phoenix

Last night, I caught the music of two bands I've never heard a lick of before - Woods and Dungen.

For the friendly Stockholm psych-rockers Dungen, I was expecting loud rock bombast, and instead we got soaring guitar melodies, gorgeous piano playing and a band incredibly in mental musical tune with each other. I loved these guys, never having heard a single piece of music of theirs until last night. And this was despite at times wondering if this was the second coming of Spinal Tap - A Jazz Oddyssey. It was that prog-jazzy at times. But Dungen were so into it, and so skilled at it that people were listening intently. It was not a fist-up, beers-in-the-air rock show (my favorite kind). And the Dungen boys loved Phoenix, and said so a few times. Cool set all around.


[Dungen photo by Dfactor]


Opening earlier was Woods (or is it Woods Family Band?) came on, playing their pretty melodic folk pop. (FYI - I saw these guys back in NYC a few years ago in an earlier incarnation called Menaguar - search my Waved Rumor archives, you might find a review somewhere)


[Woods photo by Dfactor]

Woods is a multi-instrument friendly combo, and I like a guitar-strumming drummer (or is it a drumming guitar-strummer?) If you didn't like the singer's thin wavering voice (I kinda did after awhile, admittedly - it fit the slight melodies), you could dig into the band's tape manipulations, handled deftly front and center by this cool cat:


[Woods photo by Dfactor]

Cool stuff - the crowd really liked it. I wasn't disappointed. There was a local PHX opening band (Terra Firma) - I arrived as they were finishing their last song, a little reverby spacey guitar thing.

More photos at my Flickr page.

(Footnote: I think I'm starting to really dislike the Rhythm Room. Maybe it's the stage backdrop that doesn't help distinguish one band from another while onstage. It's ALWAYS the faded, worn, fraying 'Rhythm Room' sign behind 'em. Or maybe it's the pitifully small and low stage, which Dungen could barely fit on and which you can barely see the musicians if you're in the back. Or maybe it's just the grim, dark atmosphere that pervades the place. Seeing shows at Rhythm Room sucks away my joy of rock and roll each time I'm there.)