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Further
Seems Forever, The Movielife, Autopilot Off, Anberlin As a quality alternative to the over-blown Warped Tour is this four-exceptional band display. All four can be classified within the faux-genres of emo-punk, indie-punk or as the New York Times likes to say "screamo" (though that titled has been used for more power violence-orientated band like Milhouse and the Locust) - well more for Further Seems Forever than the other three. Unlike many major cities, the shows at the Cradle typically start on time and end in a timely manner. For this show, there was little variance. This was brutally made clear by coming to the show a half-hour after the posted "starting time." This allowed me to only catch three songs from Florida's new rising star Anberlin. Though two of the three were among the best from their recent release on Tooth & Nail Records Blueprints for the Black Market. As the tour continues, make sure to show up early to check out this five-some. Shortly after Anberlin ended, it became obvious that all of the clothing stores in town ran out of every color except black. While I thought I was at a Ministry show for a spell, at least the color was tempered the scenester combination of black clothes. Autopilot Off from New York was up next. Though I've heard of AO for sometime, I had never heard a lick from them. Slowly filling the stage, the four-piece of AO started off with somekind of crazy intensity and extremely tight playing. Playing roughly eight songs from their various releases, lead singer Chris Johnson was a powerful lead man that helped carry AO in overall band maturity. That's the memories - a very mature and tight band that makes other band's flaws even more obvious. After Autopilot Off, the strong-island boys of The Movielife graced the stage. Since the last time I had seen the Movielife play was at a catering hall in Mineola, NY like six years ago, I was expecting something much better than that evening so long ago. Like AO, The Movielife are a very tight and intense live band. Interestingly, the Movielife sound noticeably better live than recorded. Their stage mannerisms come close to those from hardcore bands that The Movielife share many veins with back in NY. Playing mostly from their new album Forty Hour Train Back to Penn (Drive-Thru Records) and a few others including "Hand Grenade" from The Movielife Has a Gambling Problem EP, they played a healthy set. One glaring moment was when lead singer Vinnie Caruana and guitarist Brandon Reilly attempted a slow acoustic number. As the acoustic guitar didn't work for some reason, they just played the song with electric guitar. Apparently, Caruana was heckled for the slow number and we would later lament how tough guys have problems with such songs. Through his little post-song show, he rambled a bit and stated that coming from New York and getting heckled here was bullshit. I don't know exactly what he was getting at but it leaves open a number of interpretations - some negative. After thanking the crowd for keeping the scene alive, The Movielife ended with an explosive blast of songs. Taking a close-to-rock-star long time to the actually take the stage, Florida-based Further Seems Forever finally strapped on. Lead singer Jason Gleason, wearing a Krokus shirt, began FSF's set of bipolar songs. That is, songs that move quickly between screaming and super-mellow sections. At times, this approach was very successful, other times it seemed a bit strained and forced. As a nice change of pace for the evening the bassist/backup singer Chad Neptune wore something other than black - a flannel shirt. On some of the songs Gleason would join the two guitarists with guitar and for another song the tech picked up an acoustic to add thickness. So, there was a moment were you had four guitars strumming away and I though I was watching A Mighty Wind with the New Main Street Preachers. Probably the highlight of their set was a sweet cover of Bjork's "Pagan Poetry." As a multi-section epic, FSF pulled off the parts beautifully and with considerably amount of their own touch. Though I'd never seen FSF before, it was clear that they are onto something big and will likely start to explode all over the music community.
After the show, I went home and stared at my white walls for a
while to fine tune my vision.
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