A Night at the Lo-Fi

Love Battery played Lo-Fi last night, and of course, yours truly was in attendance. Now that the ringing in my ears has finally begun to subside, I’ll try to pen a few paragraphs about the show.

The festivities kicked off shortly after 10pm, and first up was Summer Babes. This band had kind of a pop thing going on, complete with matching white uniforms for all band members and an attractive girl on keyboards. The latter sort of reminded me of Veronica from the Archies.

When they first took the stage, I had no idea what to expect, but by the second song, I was totally into it.

I didn’t do much recording last night, opting instead to just enjoy the music, but I found a video of Summer Babes playing a KEXP gig, and it’s pretty good, though they’re better with an audience bouncing around in front of them. (How was that for a run-on sentence?)

The Summer Babes are a good band. They are quite entertaining, have infectious energy, and the lead guitar player has a library of cool riffs.

I hope to see these guys again, and for those who may also, be sure to check-in at their website @ http://summerbabes.org/

The next band up was Atomic Bride, there to celebrate the release of their new CD. Their music is hard to categorize, but when all was said and done, I was really surprised by how much I liked these guys.

Atomic Bride has dual lead singers/guitar players, one male and one female and they compliment each other quite well. The band has a very original sound which has elements of punk, surf, goth, and pop, with a generous amount of Melvins-esque sludge/doom … especially during the intros and outros. At one point, I turned to my buddy and told him that I thought that they sounded like a gothic B5′s, and he agreed, although this description is an oversimplification.

I found this video from a previous gig to give you a vague idea of what I am talking about:

I really liked this band, and I’m going to grab their upcoming CD for my own mp3 listening pleasure. Check out their site @ http://music.atomic-bride.com/

Next up, was Love Battery.

Now, I’ve already written a few articles about Love Battery, so I won’t keep repeating myself. I will say, however, that last night reminded me why they are one of my favorite bands of all time. Unfortunately, their set was abbreviated due to the 1:30am curfew, but we got about an hour, plus an encore that was roundly demanded by the audience.

Honestly, I don’t think any of us would have been truly satisfied until they had played every song from every album, but we got a good setlist to hold us until the next gig. A couple of songs off the top of my head were Highway of Souls, Between the Eyes, Head of Ringo, and Out of Focus to end the main set (which was the set ender at the Mixx last October as well).

I’ve been a fan of this band for 23 years, and they’re still outstanding. As one of the best bands to ever come out of Seattle, I cannot fathom the ineptitude of the label which prevented these guys from becoming huge. I cannot imagine the incompetence of the guy who was tasked with bringing this band to the unwashed masses. Were Jesus Christ to grant me one wish, my wish would be to banish that guy to the seventh circle of hell for all of eternity.

After all, had said guy not effed up so spectacularly, we’d probably have four, maybe five more records by now. May he be forever sentenced to watch an endless loop of American Idol Seasons 1-10 in a fiery pit alongside his moral equivalents … Gary Ridgeway and Osama Bin Laden.

Oh, and if you think I’m a fan, check this out …

Last night, there was a guy in the audience … younger guy, long hair … yelling out the lyrics to every song. That is, when he wasn’t jumping around all over the place and just going nuts in general. When the show was over, I learned that he had flown up here from Virginia just to see the show. That’s right, he flew 5,000 miles round-trip, for a 70 minute set … and you could tell by the look on his face that it was worth every mile.

That’s why you’re lucky to live in Seattle, folks.

In any event, a good time was had by all, and I would like to thank Summer Babes, Atomic Bride, and Love Battery for a great show.

I can’t wait for the next one.