If you have eagerly read my blogs (which are not posted often and poor in quality), you'll have noticed my review of their then new album. Now they have a new one.Also a band from a previous post, Seven Years Absence opened for falling up. This is a nice resume moment for them. For me, it is like watching my child become fully mature from the times we recorded in my studio to opening for falling up (or whatever other emotional stuff you want to put here). It was a good show.
Here is a run-down of the concert. There were 4 bands (Seven Years Absence, The Renewing, We as Human, and Falling Up). Almost everyone there was 1/2 my age and looked prepubescent. Little boys with their wispy chin hairs and girls with their cell phones and giggles. So the wife and I went up into the balcony and sat up there. It was also an ideal spot to shoot photos for the evening's bands.
Seven Years Absence: A solid set of songs. I like the new material - 3rd song especially. Apparently, SYA is recording that song today (at least when I spoke with Nick this morning). They have tightened up their stuff. A new drum set has made their sound fuller. I especially like the kick drum. All in all, a nice set of songs and well done for being spread out across a large stage. In my opinion, SYA had a lot more going on than the second band. SYA should have been the second act.
The Renewing: if there music were to ever grace the shelf of your library, I can garantee that there would be no renewing of their material. It was really bad. The singer was flat, the guitar muddy and out of tune. It was like watching a 17 year old play guitar in front of people because he is the concert hall's son or something (OH wait, I think that is actually what the Renewing is...how silly of me). I cannot say enough bad things about them. Stage presence was lousy, too much aimless talking between songs, it just made me want to go get a warm beverage and wait for them to finish (which we did).
We as Human: This is a band that has strong potential to get signed to a label.
They were a nice change from the teenage embarrassment of The renewing. Their first song took me by surprise because they have excellent stage presence. It was also much louder and filled with gritty screaming. Overall, their set was alright. The last song seemed to showcase the band's potential the most. The most distracting element of their set was some guy who was running around on stage with a little digital camera shooting close-ups of the band. To me, that was unprofessional and very distracting. I actually shot several pictures of him as he wallowed on the floor in front of the lead singer. In short, We as Human needed one fewer humans.Falling Up: A spectacular show. They outdid themselves with this concert.
I am always leary of seeing bands in concert (especially those who's recorded work is good) because I fear that they'll be lousy live. Falling Up in concert makes their albums look thin and transparent. They outdo their recorded work. The Lead singer's sustain and tone of his voice are awe inspiring. The drummer's hair ads and element of fun to some spectacular musicianship. The guitarist's take on music is refreshing in that it seems his goal is to add to the music rather than be the guitar god. An excellent set. They are also some pretty down to earth and nice guys.
Aside from finding a boa constrictor in my printer at work (I am not making this up), these are the most recent adventures of the GSM.