the coke hyena - Headlights At The Empty Bottle

Headlights label: Polyvinyl Canada label: Quite Scientific Skeletons & The Girl Faced Boys label: Shinkoyo, Ghostly The Beauty Shop label: Snapper/Believe Caleb Engstrom label: Right Place

Now, I missed the first two bands (Caleb Engstrom and Canada) completely and most of Skeletons. They were alright, I guess, not my cup of tea. The pacing was very boring, the bass tone didn't wow me, the drummer was pretty good, and as for the guitars, had the bass not been so overfuckingwhelmingly loud, I might have really got to hear them but alas. At the end the lead singer/bass player busted out a saxophone but left his bass feeding back. That was the nail in the coffin for between this band, and me right then I stopped liking them.

The Beauty Shop was better, much better in fact. The Best Part about their set was it got better as it went along as well. When they started off I thought I was going to be listening to some dude who plays his acoustic guitar in his dorm and at some point someone told him he was good. They started off slow but as the set went on the songs were catchier and catchier. Good tones all around, the songs were head bobbers for the most part, but I really thought they were missing something Being a three piece (drums, bass, acoustic) I really felt they could have used some keys possible an electric guitar. Dance it up a little; possibly some vocal harmonies and these guys will really have something. I stole a sticker, sue me.

...And for the main event, Headlights, an amazing three piece that was just begging to be seen by anyone with a musical bone in their body. Tristan Wraight, Erin Fein, and Brett Sanderson put forth dance-y, catch-y, wave of sound that I have not had the pleasure of hearing live in quite a while. Being a spur of the moment free thing to do I wasn't expecting much from a headlining act on a Monday night, but I was pleasantly proved wrong. The vocal harmonies remind you of a Mates Of State meets Yo La Tengo kind of thing. But the trippy guitar parts, squealing through the melody of the keys really made it for me. All three of them are extremely good musicians as far as I can tell, playing every song almost effortlessly. Make sure you get out and see this band at the smaller venues as I can foresee their career taking off within the next year.

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Posted on 11/21/2006