Driving home in the dark. It seems that no matter what our stretch of time in New England is, the majority of it is spent driving in the dark in Connecticut.
Friday night’s gig with White Rose Confession was nothing short of spectacular. Might even have been world-shattering, though I’m SURE someone would’ve noticed, though perhaps the world shattered in a parallel dimension and we continue in a strange pocket of time where that destruction has merely been diverted to a different planet.
Finally, the spare has been conquered, and we’re prepared to leave Providence, RI.
As is our wont, when sandwiched betwixt two loud electric bands, we play extra hard and extra fast and make an extra fantastic showing of ourselves.
After Providence, RI we headed out to play as the open mic feature at Matt Lindi’s Rose Room Review in Upton, MA. Keren Lee signed up for a slot and showed off his immaculate bass skills. He displayed that he was “l33t”.
When you see a friend’s band for the first time, there’s a lot of fear. What if we don’t like them? Frankly – there’s a lot of people we like who’s music we don’t like. It’s a little awkward, because often it’s so personal… I DON’T ask my friends to come see us play unless I’m solid about their opinion of us. I definitely don’t ask for opinions unless they’re offered, because you HAVE to let people have the option of not liking your music, even if they like us as people. Musical tastes and personality tastes just aren’t really connected, and so I try really hard to keep the two separate.
One of the bracketing pair of ukelele players at the Rose Room in Upton, MA. One guy opened with blazing uke instrumental madness, and this guy closed with some of the coolest, most perverse and twisted ukelele tunes I’ve ever heard. I was so glad to know HE’D written them, because then at least you KNOW, you know? Who’s writing about presenting a woman with the biggest woody (sung with thick indeterminate accent) and about making sure your new bride is dead before declaring it so. You know, poking her with a stick just ain’t enough.
Andy of White Rose Confession at Riverside in Danielson, CT. He’s amazing. I would’ve begrudged him the sheer tonnage of amplifier he plays through if he was just so damned awesome.
White Rose Confession treating us quite well at the Riverside in Danielson, CT.
And so – Mike and Ari, who we Love… we’ve known them for about two years and yet we’ve never seen Mike’s band, White Rose Confession. Friday night was our first time hearing them, much less sharing the stage. We knew Mike had a good voice from an open mic appearance years ago (when we met him), but I’d never heard anything but scratch recordings and bad mp3s, and I was a little bit worried.
And so Friday night was sweet.
In high school, before I’d started even playing bass, long before I defined myself as a musician, as I was discovering the visceral speed and thrust of painting big, Alice in Chains released “Man in the Box” and changed my Life.
ilyAIMY with Keren Lee at the Riverside in Danielson, CT. We were inspired by the surrounding metal. I couldn’t believe the sound from the djembe. Unfortunately, none of the recordings turned out because of the artillery-like sound of the bass-mic on her drum. Awesome Live though.
I’d certainly been effected by Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, but they’re indeterminate lyrics and driving guitar still hadn’t evicted Bon Jovi, Van Halen or Metallica as my favourite music – but I remember painting in my basement bedroom as “Man in the Box” came on 98 Rock and filled my room with Lane Staley’s growl and Jerry Cantrell’s whining guitar – the subwoofer on my gesso covered boom box pushed that hungry bass sound out and it changed my Life. Everything was more urgent, vibrant – here was something as angry and trapped and confused and hurt as I was, and my teen angst found the perfect outlet. Playing bass, writing music – it was probably set in motion at that moment with Alice in Chains. I saw them three times before Lane Staley died. I’m eager to see their new incarnation. I’ve always been hungry for something that hit me in the same way.
Keren doesn’t smile much while he’s playing. You’ve got to go and dance with him, but then he gets weirded out and starts questioning his sexuality… but if you fling one’s beautiful brunnetteness at him and he can’t see the facial hair, sometimes he forgets and enjoys himself.
Enter White Rose Confession. I stood dumbfounded as they fired into their set. Mike’s guitarist, Andy, is one of the most perfect players I’ve ever met. Their drummer, Jay, holds everything together. Three-part male harmony – Mike is in amazing vocalist and a great front-man. I felt like I was in my basement again, discovering grunge for the first time.
Ari and Ren at the Riverside in Danielson, CT. We have about a billion videos over on youtube.com now, and Ren is to thank for most of them. Maybe we’ll finally have a little ilyAIMY DVD someday?
WRC has more of a new-millenia feel, of course – showing a lot of Shinedown and Nickelback influences. But the rhythms are fierce, hard, incredible jarring stops, driving bass-lines. As soon as they’ve got something that reflects their Live show, their CD will be in heavy rotation in my car – and I don’t mean rotating in out of play – I mean spinning. Like as in playing. Like… all the time. Oh GOD yes.
Ari’s mom, Debbie, who I could’ve sworn was her older sister, Heather and Ren at the Riverside. The floating head is one of Mike’s favourite soundmen. Debbie’s responsible for most of the pictures of us from Friday night’s WRC show.
