1 post tagged “rock”

Just in from a show at a local venue, Wetlands Dance Hall. Wetlands is, in my opinion, Chapel Hill's secret gay bar. There used to be a bar here called Gotham, which closed years ago; in the intervening years Chapel Hill has offered little along the lines of a queer space, but thankfully Wetlands is starting to take up that charge.

Anyway, the show. I first met Jocelyn Arem last month, as we participated in a workshop led by Tim Miller at UNC. The workshop culminated in an ensemble performance called "Body Works," which was composed of original writings about our bodies and the stories contained within. Jocelyn's piece was about her voice, which is rather important, given the fact she is a singer-songwriter. I got the chance to listen to her sing a little during the week of the workshop, but tonight's show was the first time I fully experienced her as a solo performer.

All in all, I felt she was the strongest part of tonight's lineup, if only due to her focus and stage presence.

Bibis Ellison, the second group, were fine. A friend remarked they were like Sarah Mclachlan by way of Radiohead, which I thought was pretty accurate. The cuteness factor was pretty high.

Headlining was Trespassers William, who I have heard before, but this was my first time seeing them live. Honestly, I felt I wanted them to be much better than they were tonight. Typical shoegaze rock, they reminded me of Asobi Seksu, but without the clear sense of what they should sound like. The sound mix also lacked priority, which became a problem, as we didn't know whether to (struggle to) pay attention to the lyrics or just regard them as additional melody, like Sigur Ros, but even with that band, the listener can clearly hear the vocals, made-up language or not. That being said, they had sheer volume on their side, and I like that; sometimes you just gotta love it when bands bring on as much sound as possible.