Sick Puppies, Kill Hannah, Flyleaf
I was really excited to be able to go see Sick Puppies again at Slims on Friday night. Their earlier show in May was one of the best I’ve seen - trio, good songs, good sound, and the band was crazy tight. Okay - some of the lyrics need work, but hey it’s their first album.
When I checked the lineup though I was surprised to find out that they would be the opener. When we arrived the place was totally packed with teenagers and I saw the guys from the band take the stage and start sound checking. I could tell by the looks on their faces that there was trouble with the sound and they spent an extra ten minutes or so trying to fix things, but then they started their set. Shim spent a lot more time trying to get the crowd going this time, which was funny because there were so many more people there. He did the ‘when I say 1-2′ trick, and the trick of having each side of the room compete to see who is the loudest and really tried to get the crowd moving.
The sound on the first half of the set was crap - somewhere a drum mic was feeding back bass frequencies and ruining the songs. It was worst on ‘All the Same’, which was probably the song that most people had paid to see. Things got a little bit better after that, but the guitar sounded a little thin and the vibe was pretty bad after the feedback problems.
They were professionals though and worked through the problems. In comparison to the last gig, the set was really short - only about seven songs: Cancer, My World, Pitiful, Say My Name, All the Same, Howard’s Tale. It’s good to know that even pros have sound issues and they just grit their teeth and get through the set.
I talked very briefly to the guys in the band, but didn’t choose my moment very well. I should have waited to talk to them when they were just chilling having a beer. The autograph table was too crowded to really say much.
Next up was Kill Hannah, which is kind of a weird combination of Robert Smith from the Cure and the 80’s hair band Poison. They came on stage at first with lights on their guitars, a smoke machine and lasers, which I though was pretty cool, but none of their songs hooked me and it sounded like the singer had fried his vocal chords completely. Some of their songs were danceable, but only because they were basically dance music dressed up as emo. I’m sure they put a lot of effort into their stage show and their look, but it didn’t really matter for me because the music wasn’t there, or maybe the image just turned me off. They did have a fair amount of fans though, so I guess kids can relate to that kind of stuff.
Flyleaf came last, and they had the best set of the night. The bass player didn’t do much flashy playing, but he had a 2′ tall platform on stage that he could stand on or jump off of which he did often and with great effect. The whole act was very dramatic and had the feel of Cirque du Soleil. The vocalist was very expressive and the songs were good.
Take away
Each of the bands had a different crowd and there was some overlap. The age of these kids made me realize that these audiences probably don’t have a well formed sense of identity yet. I guess I’ve overlooked one of the main things that bands provide is a way to brand ourselves and kids are especially into that. No one listens to their parents music for long.
This raises several good questions:
Who do you want you fans to be? 17 year old kids? Adults?
What kind of identity can you provide? Is it the same as the ne you want to provide?
How much is the right effort to put into a stage show? When do lasers help and when do they simply become distracting?
Right now I’m thinking that the Pebble Theory/Audrey Sessions approach is the one I like - good music without a lot of distraction.