6/4 – Helio Sequence @ Mohawk

One couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening to watch music, as the cool breeze, rare for a summer evening, crept in upon those in attendance at The Mohawk this past Thursday. Every thing was poised for a perfect night of music, as good friends joined to watch The Helio Sequence. Follow the jump for review and pics.

Local band Low Line Caller opened at the request of the headliners. While the vocals soared that evening, the band was not quite aesthetically pleasing.  They lacked a certain passion in front of what most would describe as an enthusiastic audience.  But, perhaps in another setting, the band would have won us over.

Next up on the list came DRI, a band who we had known little about.  They played low-key keyboard driven pop tunes, which rarely packed a punch.  However, we were able to uncover the great mystery of the band as we recognized the lead singer as Adrienne Vernhoever from legendary emo band The Anniversary. Sadly, she was barely as enchanting behind her new line-up as she was in her former years.

All in all, the evening wasn’t shaping up to be much more than one could shake a stick at, that is until the Helio Sequence took to the stage.  It’s hard to expect a lot from the presence of only two men on stage, but on this particular evening they sounded like far more than a small duo.

Really, you could just concentrate on the animated facial gestures of drummer Ben Weikel, though by no means is this mean to take anything away from Brandon Summers.  Both men were easily able to captivate the audience as they played through almost all of Keep Your Eyes Ahead.  Summers voice carried over the crowd during “Lately” as his guitar shattered the quiet evening with ease.  Weikel pounded away on his kit with such ferocity and concentration that you would be hard pressed to find a misstep in the entire set.

Slower songs such as “Shed Your Love” still maintained their perfect resonance with members of the audience, though the swaying of the crowd was much more prone to movement during the more rocking elements of the set such as the chorus of “Can’t Say No.”  Every time the music rose to meet with the vocals it illuminated the crowd, bursting with magnificence in the ears of those present.  The entire evening went much like this, as the band did a phenomenal job playing to a crowd eager to be won over.

Based on this show alone, we would encourage anyone seeking a good show to catch this band while they’re at it, for you won’t find a tighter, more exhilarating band on the circuit at the moment.