After a nice hour+ ride from the Northbay to the city - and after getting robbed again of $5 at the bridge Misty, Matt, Chrispy Finch Fry and I started drinking. By the time we left we had succesfully taken lots of free merch and offered the Annuals a show at our house. They were cool about it and said that their other band, Sedona, might be interested. But this is supposed to be a show review, although I don’t have so much time right now so I’ll get down to the grit. Annuals rocked. Misty and I had seen them one time before at Bimbo’s 365 with Blonde Redhead, one of our favorite bands, and they were amazing there. The sound at Bottom of the Hill can’t really compare to Bimbo’s but Annuals pulled it off really well. I was amazed just at how well they fit on that tiny stage cuz there’s like… …50 of them. I felt bad after their set, I spent all my money on booze and didn’t have anything to spend on their merch. Next time, Gadget. Annuals got everyone singing on Dry Clothes and I even heard a good amount of harmony from the crowd, which the singer commented on, I think. I couldn’t really hear what he said but that’s what I was thinking about the whole time. Manchester Orchestra were good. The singer reminds me a lot of Claudio from Coheed and Cambria: big guy, high voice. He did this weird thing, which I know is a performer’s trick, where he just stared at the back of the room, or the tops of everybody’s heads. I have this thing about making a connection with the crowd, maybe it’s like a pet peeve. It seems like a band has more fun if they make a lot of eye contact and communicate with the crowd. Seems more sincere. But they sounded awesome, minus the five minute solo singer intro and outros.
I often find my friends and I playing this game at shows and I’m sure you do it too, time to time: find a famous person, or local friend who looks like, or like the sibling of someone in the band you’re watching. That’s what we were doing the entire time The New Frontiers were playing. The singer was the mirror image of Dave Grohl and Tom Petty’s future test-tube baby, while the bass and keyboard players were both long lost brothers of local friend Dillon Rego [of Alaskas]. Guitars were supplied by son of John Mayer and my friend Sean [Methamphetamine Disaster] played drums. Not in reality though. In reality it was a cool band from Texas, although they sounded like they actually could be an amalgamation of Tom Petty, Dave Grohl and Dillion Rego…
Kevin Devine was also great. He reminds me of a young, angry David Bazan.