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Cursive,
Sorry About Dresden and The White Octave The only way to make this a more big time local, yet well-known, indie rock show, was if Superchunk played. Sorry About Dresden (Saddle Creek Records) is from Chapel Hill, The White Octave (Initial Records) is from Chapel Hill, and Cursive's (Saddle Creek Records) former singer is the lead in The White Octave, besides from Cursive's natural connections to the indie rock Mecca of Chapel Hill. This is the new wave of indie rock as we know it and it is easy to say that the future looks bright. Starting this night of goodness was, surprisingly, the gods of The White Octave. Many of you have probably heard at least parts of their latest release 'Menergy' out on Initial. Some of you have scattered opinions of sameness and others love their unique sound. The recorded material is nothing compared to seeing them bust it out live; simply amazing. It had only been four months since I saw them last, but their ability and tightness had progressed exponentially. Blasting through almost all of the tracks on 'Menergy' and classics from their debut album 'Style No. 6312' on Deep Elm, The White Octave failed to disappoint. This was particularly on the classics off their first album like 'Crashing the Clarion,' 'South,' and 'Adult Entertainment,' and new material like 'The Constant is Zero' and 'Weight'. Some meatheads in the front of the stage just stared while more half of the crowd sang along (and some even played air guitar to them!). I can't say enough of these guys, except to be truly hooked like a junkie on speed you need to see them live, not unlike the Faint. Attempting to follow something like the show that the White Octave had just put on is always difficult. Yet, Sorry About Dresden did their best. As Sorry About Dresden had been touring with Cursive, they got this prime location on the bill. For the most part, Sorry About Dresden played material off their new album on Saddle Creek 'The Convenience of Indecision,' a delectable assortment of songs (see our review of their album in this month's reviews). This included 'a losing season,' 'one version of events' and 'hosanna in the highest.' I was surprised the number of people out to support the boys of Sorry About Dresden; I think I even saw some supportive parents of the boys, well men, in the band lurking around. Given what has been said, Sorry About Dresden was considerably sloppier in their musicianship then the White Octave, but I think was a function of two things: first, Sorry About Dresden's music is supposed to be as much and second, the White Octave is just amazingly tight. Capping off with evening of clan rock was the almighty Cursive, purveyors of all they survey. As with the other bands, Cursive has a recent release out called 'Burst and Bloom' on Saddle Creek. The crowd thickened and drew close together, as the lead singer (Tim Krasher) stumbled around pretending (I think for the most part) to be drunk. Starting with a number from 'Such blinding stars for starving eyes,' before busting into the first song off the new release 'Sink to the Beat,' Cursive covered all bases and histories of the band. I can't believe that I got this far in talking about Cursive and haven't mentioned the coolest edition to the band; that being Gretta Cohn rocking the electronic Cello. Gretta sits right in the middle of the stage very calm and professional and throws down these heavy almost thumping rhythms along with the guitars. Without a doubt or notion of wrongness, Gretta takes Cursive to the next level in innovativeness and musicianship. As an array of inside jokes were thrown between the audience and the stage, Cursive went through their set with the experience and ability of well worn veterans.
At the end of the day, the only thing that needs to be made clear
and communicated to you, the reader, is that you need to check
out all three of these bands live and recorded. If not, then you
truly missing out.
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