Nickthenerd

Before you get carried away and point out a typo, Harry Trumen is a band name.  I had never heard of them before so I’m not even sure if they are local or where the heck they came from…  All I know is that they played four songs and spent about 20 minutes on stage and were out of there!  I will give them a pass.  They were not a bad band but they seemed pretty boring to me.  The lead singer had some Trent Green looking face and hair thing going on and he likes to sing sometimes with his teeth clenched.  Strange, but whatever floats your boat I guess…it’s your band!

The flyer for the event

Republic Tigers was the next band on the bill.  They had a fairly short intermission so that was a bonus for the night.  I get grumpy when the stage is set, the sound is done, and it sits empty for five more songs.  I’m too impatient, I guess.

I was pretty jazzed to see Rep Tigers because I really, really like their song, “Buildings and Mountains.”  Personally, I think this is one of the top 10 songs of last year.  Unfortunately the song was not nearly as good live as it as it is on the CD.  Frankly, I was pretty disappointed in the sound of Rep Tigers live all together.  In most of their pictures, I have found that they have six members.  Now, I don’t know if something had recently happened, maybe someone was sick, maybe the band kicked him out, who knows, but there was only five people on the stage.  A singer/part time guitarist/ 2 reg guitarists, bassist and drummer who played part time DJ.

Let me sum up my disappointment very quickly.  I listen to your CD, your song, your piece of airwaves for an average of 3:30 seconds.  I end up really liking said song.  I go to the concerts, maybe not expecting it to be perfect, maybe not expecting it to be the same, but I expect greatness in some form or fashion.  Tonight I did not see greatness.  In fact, I saw something that made me go into a sudden deep depression.  The drummer set up a Mac and was running the synth/piano/extras from it for each song.  This makes me very sad.

Republic Tigers on stage

No, not because of my lack of love for Mac- in fact I have no problem with you if you want to record music on it.  It has some decent apps for that…BUT….the synth is probably what I would say makes Rep Tiger different, makes them sound unique and gives them a flavor that attracts my ears.  To see this piece just played over the top of all the various parts that the actual persons were playing was sheer sacrilege.

I seriously felt like I was kicked in the junk.  To boot, I was fairly close to the stage for the first half of their set and the mix was awful..completely drowning out the vocals from all mics.  I moved back, closer to the sound board and things cleared up and sounded much, much better, however I was already done.  I’m not sure if I have expressed this enough…but having someone play those parts live, on synth or whatever it takes, could of made this an epic concert…could of been something that just knocked me off my feet.  Instead, I got to see a Mac play it all and a bunch of dudes stand around playing chords as whole notes.  LAME!

UFB sign w/ lead singer, Bill, on the right side.

Moving on to the enjoyable part of the night.  Ultimate Fakebook!  I had seen these guys live many, many years ago while attending KSU.  Hell it was so long, I have no idea where I saw them.  Perhaps it was Silverados, maybe Bombers?  Who knows…it doesn’t really matter at this point.  Regardless, they were a high fun, high energy band and they brought that again same feeling again tonight.

The first thing the band does is pull a curtain down and reveal a giant UFB, which was later on revealed that it was made out of cardboard, lights, and duct tape, but the thing worked great! The other thing you notice about these guys is how much fun they are having up there on the stage.  I love the standard trio power rock band as well.  You can call them punk, call them alt rock, call them indie…whatever.  In my book, it is power rock w/ a punk attitude.  These guys are going crazy and doing everything to get the crowd into it.

Before getting into the set, the stage hand brought out a six inch riser, which was probably 3′ x 3′.  This was placed in the middle of the stage for solos.  Both mics were on either side of the riser so either one could run up there if they want to show off a little bit.

Going into the show, they played “Far, Far away” early, perhaps the second song.  Moving in the third song was very interesting though.  The third song brought a lady onto the stage, on her own power (no security for small events), who decided to start dancing and singing, “She Don’t Even Know My Name.”  The band was a complete pro about it and just let her dance up there for a little while before one of the stage hands tapped her on the foot and told her to come with him to the side.  That got a bit of a laugh from everyone, including the band.  A little later in the set some guy started through cigs at the bassist/drummer, I’m not sure which, but after the song the drummer, Eric, came to the mic and thanked the guy for paying attention or something.  I assume this was a bit of an inside joke from their old shows.

There was also a problem with the lead amp at some point.  I’m not sure if part of the head burnt up or what, but the lead went half the song without playing guitar and it was only bass and drums.  These guys hadn’t played together for years since the lead singer guy lives in LA, but it was just like jumping back on the horse for them.  It was great.  A few songs later, the dancing lady gets back up there and starts singing and dancing again on the riser.  LOL – This time a stage person grabbed her right away and I don’t think she came back.

One of the last songs started the vertical columns of vanilla going off all over the stage and then some confetti machine going crazy, spitting out confetti all over the front half of the stage and about 30 feet into the crowd.  By the time that song was over, the lead singer had about 10 pieces of confetti stuck to his face because of his sweat from playing.  With all of these things going on, they were still pros, never wavering and getting through the songs, even leaving all those pieces stuck to his face with one even hanging over his glasses.

The encore was pretty cool starting off with the song, “Real Drums.”  The concert ended with an invitation to get a ton of people up on stage.  It was FULL.  I’m not even sure how they expect to play with a bunch of people banging thier arms/bodies/instruments but they did it.

All in all, it was a great concert because of UFB.  They came in and had a ton of fun which isn’t something you see a lot of from any other band.  I was and still am pretty disappointed in Republic Tigers though.  I just keep from thinking how epic “Buildings and Mountains” would of been with someone on a real keyboard going crazy.  Congrats to UFB.  I hope they get a chance to do more shows like this in the future.

nickthenerd Music Concert, Rock