Saturday, March 18, 2006

This School Rules!

as in, Film School, the great Bay-area indie-rock band. They love Interpol, Elbow, Joy Division and Peter Gabriel, as evidenced from the singer's hushed crooning and jangly guitar. I saw this gem of a band at the 400 Bar on March 1st. A great way to begin March indeed!

Hojas Rojas opened up, and their set of space and hard rock was enjoyable. There wasn't much of a crowd, until the singer said that he would do a cover, and hoped the crowd didn't mind. They played a Radiohead song and we loved it. Their music was decent, and their performance fun to watch overall.

Next came a band from Green Bay, Turn Blue. It was a duo of opposites: The tall, balding, skinny, glasses-wearing singer playing guitar and keyboard piano; the short, stocky, lotsa hair, headphone-wearing drummer. Their songs were poppy and easy-going, though the vocals were quite faint at times. The music was better-suited for coffee shops and low intensity gigs of the like. However, I liked the change, and talked to the band afterward. Sure enough, they have played a number of coffee shop gigs in the Green Bay area.

When Film School came on, all the tall, skinny, white, shoe-gazing twentysomethings (including me) came out in abundance, some with beers in hand (not me). Dressed in track jackets, hoodies, snowboard-looking hats and baggy jeans, they stared at their shoes and barely danced throughout the band's set! Not me, though; I danced, swayed and sang along to the band's addictive, catchy, refreshing and post-rock tinged music for over an hour. They played some songs off their EP, which I promptly purchased aferwards. I spoke with the band after their set, who said this was their first trip to Minnesota and the Midwest. Hopefully they'll come back again soon!

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