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Welcome to the inaugural edition of The
Scene - Live, our weekly review (or journal if you will) of the
happenings in the music scene around us. The plan is each weekend we will
hit a few shows in and around Birmingham and then tell you what we thought
of each. One thing I want to say from the get-go is I may make a few
enemies along the way with these reviews, as I promised myself that I had
to be honest. My point being, if I catch a show and I was not that
impressed I will say so. I hope the day never comes that I have to do
that, but if it does and you are the recipient of a bad review I hope you
take it as the constructive criticism that it is intended to be. Besides, it's nothing more than my opinion.... right? This
weekend's adventure started Friday evening with a stop at The Barking
Kudu to catch Birmingham's own Lynam. I arrived a little early
so the club had not had a chance to get it's usual "party"
atmosphere going just yet, but it did not take long once they opened the
doors to the performance room. Jacob, Dave & Mark took the stage
shortly before 11 pm and managed to get the party started right. Whaling
out covers ranging from Whitesnake to Hank Williams to Salt & Pepper,
one after another in an almost non-stop hour and a half frenzy that would
be their first set. In the barrage of covers we were also treated to a
couple of their originals, the first being their signature song
"Disco King" and the second being "Everybody's Hero"
from the upcoming Scooby Do movie. Would I say these 3 guys are the
greatest musicians in the scene right now? No, I would not. There were a
few "boo-boos" along the way, a couple of bad chords and
forgotten lyrics but then when you have a crowd of a few hundred people
singing the song for you does it really matter? My assessment of this
outing; if you are looking to hear a plethora of originals played to
almost CD quality, then Lynam is not the show for you. But if you are
looking for a night of entertaining music, high energy and a fun
atmosphere then I would say run - don't walk - to catch the next Lynam
show. My next stop would be on Saturday where I dropped
into the High Note Lounge to catch three bands, all of which I had
never seen before. First up was one of the latest editions to the B'ham
music scene Empty Fall. Johnny, Chris, Curt & Flip took the
stage right around 10:30 that evening opening with an original
"Learning" and continuing on with additional originals such as
"Hard Way", "Bleed", "Ride of your Life" and
wrapping up the all original set up with "Try". They closed the
evening with a single cover, which I believe was a Doors tune. While I
found their performance to be very tight, the songs solid and some very
nice vocal work I just did not feel a lot of energy from coming from the
stage or the songs. Their styling struck chords of Matchbox 20 meets Creed but without
some of the get-up & go. I'm not putting these guys down for the count
just yet though - I am sure I will see them again, perhaps in a different
setting to see if that raises the energy level any. I would say catch them
the next time they are around town, particularly if your preference is
towards original music in the pop/rock vein. The next band up was a
quartet with a very young British 70's look by the name of Stateside.
I must say I found these guys very entertaining. Their sound and styling
was very much in line with their look, a peppy and energetic sound that
you do not hear a lot of here in B'ham. I could see these guys falling
into the White Stripes kind of genre. Three of their songs really caught
my attention, the first being "Light Years" then "We Will
Find a Way" and "Song in D". The duties of lead vocals are
shared by the primary front man and the lead guitarist, which I found
refreshing in that it seem to create a nice variation in their songs. I
had a chance to speak with the lead vocalist after their set and he
advised me their CD is due out on March 30. It is being released in the
states under the indie label Action Driver and in Europe on Fargo under
the working title of "Phonograph". They have a US tour planned for
April, so I would say definitely catch these guys if you have the chance.
The last band to take the stage was Fun Jye. I (unfortunately) was
not able to stay for their entire set, but did manage to catch three songs
before I had to jet. I found their musical styling to be a mixture of
pop, rock and even hints of jazz (in the second song). They had a very
laid back persona on the stage, which again (for me at least) cause a
little bit of an energy problem. I don't want to say too much about their
performance just yet, in that I did not see it all and it was getting very
late by the time they took the stage. So I think perhaps I will save my
full opinion on them until I have had a chance to catch their entire set.
I have never been one to rush to judgment on anything and it wouldn't be
fair to these guys to do it in this case. Be sure to check out the
photo's from this week's shows in the new gallery! And support your local
musicians, go see them in your favorite venue - they are working hard to
earn your entertainment dollar!! Until next week........
If you are interested in writing or covering events for the Birmingham Buzz, please
send email to: editor@bhambuzz.com
and include a sample of your writing, or a link to any of your published
works.
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