Show Pics: A Night On Red River

Every once in a while, I grab the camera knowing there are a few bands playing that will have some friends out and about, on stage or off. Last Friday night was one such night with Tres Oui and Lou Rebecca featured in a record release show for Fort Never at Cheer Up Charlie‘s and Night Drive closing out a night of electronic goodness at Swan Dive (a venue I don’t got to often enough given the lineups recently).

Join me after the break with plenty of pics and quick few thoughts on Tres Oui‘s new jams and revised lineup and my first set in front of Lou Rebecca.

I always stop by Mohawk to see what’s up and say hello to the staff. A few bands playing there, but nothing on stage yet so I made the difficult walk to Cheer Up. As expected, I see Eugene running the stage, Reggie about to play and Nate and Stephen setting up indoors. #uselesnamedropping

The first band is Shimmer Island. They recently added Reggie to give the band big ringing guitar chords. Solid Alt-Indie song structure in the vain of dragon imagining, but not sucking. Vocals need to not cup the mic, though, as it causes inconsistent sound. Our local scene of ‘should be dominating Alt-radio’ is strong right now.

On to Tres Oui. The drummer was late. The new drummer… He arrived in time for the set so nobody was injured and he fell right into sync. For a first appearance, things sounded tight right away. Joining the band now as a more permanent fixture is a dude on keys. I am bad at names, but the richness afforded by this add seeped into every song old and new. The new tracks have more groove to them, deeper, longer than the pure shimmering pop we love,; is is still instantly familiar, but you can now dive in the pool headfirst now. Loved it.

I popped outside to catch the belle of the ball, Fort Never. Again. how Austin doesn’t have a bigger presence in the Alt-radio world, I do not know. They are slick, polished and Chantell Moody’s vocal is amazing, even better then backed by the rest of band on harmonies.

Back inside, it was time to check out Lou Rebecca. Having relocated from Paris and teaming with Josh Mills from Missions and Mimi Vassallo to back her vocal, Ms. Rebecca “unleashes” the restrained sensibility of classic French synthpop. Distant and lofty, leaving space in between each note and word, you are immediately entranced. I loved it.

I moved down Red River a few blocks to Swan Dive to catch Anoraak and then Night Drive. I really enjoyed the set from Anoraak. Big deep house beats with Detroit flourishes slowed down and a vocal sparingly used to set tone. The set ran late, which I was fine with to see more of a touring act, but work the next day prevented me from sticking around to see if Night Drive would play their Summer Cover (in just before the deadline), a Zeppelin/LCD Soundsystem mashup. See you guys soon, though.

Oh, shooting these bands with manual focus lenses all night is fun and challenging. #humblebrag