this band is a longtime source of conflict between Rockboy and me – I came to them through the song Fashion Fight Pause which I really really liked but Rockboy would play the album he had by them and it was so disappointingly different that I would insist it wasn’t the same band – 2-3 years later, they’re coming to Waterloo and we did a little more research – I’m still not totally straight on how it happened but through various line-ups and odd EP releases, they began as a synth punk band compared to The Screamers (only!!! the inspirations for my favorite band since 2005: Lost Sounds) but then became a indie rock/post-punk: booooorrring – so that’s what their show was – I cannot deny that they are talented and high-quality but the “new” sound is not for me – when I called out my song, they looked surprised, bemused, and said “it wasn’t programmed into the keyboard” ba duh dum

I was hesitant about seeing this band because I can hardly stand hearing the giant names from the 90s nowadays let alone the post-grunge names from the 90s – but I always had a soft spot in my heart for this band – the album grew on me – rather than the one-emotion sound of say a Fuel or a A Perfect Circle, they were a little odder and darker, albeit poppier – so it was just the lead singer on an acoustic guitar with whom I assume was his daughter sitting behind him – his voice, without the support of a full band, was familiar but definitely not a strength – he did Possum Kingdom but the song that really roused the crowd was I Come From the Water, on which the audience handled the chorus

this was Waterloo’s first in-store in the parking lot EVER… or so I thought… a regular insisted it had happened before – oh, was it grand – people as far as the eye could see – and people of all sorts: high school kids smoking pot out of a little ceramic cigarette in front of us (I almost took the sweet little girl heading down the bad path in her NIN t-shirt aside to tell her not to let those boys convince her to do what she didn’t want to) – Raoul Hernandez of the Chronicle to our left, being schmoozed – the beautiful dregs of Austin came out for this free show – we’d seen the band and remembered them as a Black Sabbath cover band with original songs – and, Waterloo did pipe Black Sabbath through the speakers the entire time we waited for the band, but the band actually has a bit more speed metal in them than Black Sabbath – they’re a good show but not sure how much I’d listen to them recorded – on the other hand, the fans lined up, albums in hand, and Waterloo Records was once again saved, at least for now

we were immediately biased by one of the band member’s girl friends who informed us the musicians were accompanying the singer in hopes of saving a sorry performance – according to her, the musicians play with several local bands and are well respected (which seemed reasonable given the performance), while the singer gets around but not with a lot of respect, kind of like some girls we know – unfortunately, this reminded me that his myspace page quoted a review that said “these guys aren’t bad” and then tried to say that the reviewer is hard to please! best not list that review – he wasn’t awful by any means but he didn’t really redeem his reputation by only playing covers, and pretty obvious covers at that (Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, etc.) – if he were your friend and you didn’t live in Austin, you’d think he was great

one-man band type blues singer with the sort of voice people refer to as “Pretty good for a white guy!” – the bartender with the Rob Halford tattoo definitely thought he was better than good, delivering shots and being his one-woman promoter- Rockboy liked him better than I did but I was excited to see that the man accompanying him on harmonica was the very odd and large doorman from Side Bar who will break into Italian ballads without reason – comparable to R.L. Burnside, which is a good thing