10/23/08 - Three Fantastic, The Felons, Fourth Frame

headed to dada once again on thursday night to catch the felons. the les savy fan showed up, too.

was amazed to see a huge crowd there when i walked in - very rare on a weeknight. the crowd was predominantly female, too - even rarer. after a while, though, our initial excitement waned as we used our keen observation skeels and noticed that these gals wouldn't be hookin up with any guys that evenin, IF you know what i mean. then, as the evening wore on, and everyone got socially lubricated, all doubt was removed. the LSF lamented "my powers are useless!". turns out they were all there to support

Fourth Frame (sorry - they don't seem to have a myspace page yet), who had their first show that night. really enjoyed these guys. very catchy pop, sometimes with a reggae feel. The LSF and I agreed - you'd never believe it was their first show - they seemed very polished and confident. very nice. wouldn't mind catching them again.

next up were the felons. you know i've loved the felons for quite a while now, and every time i see them, my opinion gets reaffirmed. i can't say enough about how talented these guys are, how incredible dave's voice is, what great songs they have put together. lookin forward to hearing more and more new stuff from them. for the last two songs, fred joined the band, and i have to admit, it put a smile on my face to see him up there again. 'twas a great finish to a great set.

last up was Three Fantastic, from houston. third time to see these guys. i tell ya, the first half of their set, they had the whole joint jumping, even causin the drunks sittin at the bar to shout "hey who the fuck are you guys?" between songs. but i have to say, the second half, they seemed to lose everyone. seemed like they dialed it back just a tad or somethin, cuz it just started to drag after a while. pretty good stuff, tho - good-timey rock-n-roll, very loungey sometimes, great voice on lead, great guitar playing. just maybe need to re-order the set a bit. freewayland was a highlight, fosho.

Check out the Felons this Thursday...

...you won't be sorry

6/26/08 - What Made Milwaukee Famous, Three Fantastic, AM Ramblers

left my buddies knuckles, the piledriver, and mr. amsterdam to their nefarious plans (including the assault of municipal property) and headed down to the effin cavern to catch a midweek show.

first up were the AM Ramblers, who I saw a couple months ago at Hailey's. Once again, if bluegrass is your thing, you can't do much better than these guys. Great 4-part harmonies. Very talented musicians.

Next up was Three Fantastic, from Houston. 4-man band - 3 guitars plus drums. saw these guys over a year ago at the Liquid Lounge, and was floored by 'em. i described the frontman as a jim morrison impersonator - howling voice, high-energy, total showman. this time - not as much. the lead seems to have calmed down somewhat over the last year or so, or the songwriting has changed quite a bit (or i'm just not remembering it very well). these guys can rock, no doubt - amazing playing from both guitar players. the vocal parts seemed almost uh, how can i describe it - loungish? i'm not sayin they were bad (in fact, i dug his voice), but you end up with an unusual combination of melt-your-face guitar playin and lounge singing. it was definitely unique and interesting, i'll say that. definitely worth checking out, if you get the chance.

What Made Milwaukee Famous headlined. was really looking forward to their set, as i really liked what i heard on their cd. only a 4-man band last night (apparently the lead guitarist was sick) - guitar, keys, bass, drum. fairly large group of loyal fans singin along with all the songs (and by fairly large i mean like 7 or 8). definitely a very high concentration of Rhythmically Impaired Dancers (gawd bless 'em). some songs definitely had a happy weezer-ish pop vibe, others were more anthemic and coldplay-ish, but with more masculine vocals (great voice on that dude, btw). lead was very funny, very engaging. i definitely enjoyed the anthemic songs more - the others i could take or leave. overall, 'twas a nice set.