It was a blistering cold winter night in Phoenix
and it seemed like a bunch of folks opted to stay home instead of catch locals
Yellow Minute support touring acts the Shaky Hands and the Rural Alberta
Advantage at the Rhythm Room last night. I had bundled up and gotten to the
venue (after a pit-stop at Krispy Kreme first, of course) and was pleasantly
surprised to see an intimate (see: not too big, not too small) crowd instead of
the regular hustle and bustle you find by the bar area on most nights. Perhaps
it was the fact that they didn't have any beer on draught, perhaps it was just
a lazy Monday night? Either way, festive twinkling lights and hanging candy canes
gave the room a western holiday feel; fully equipped with a backdrop of soft
strings, husky vocals, and ukuleles in between sets courtesy of the night's
promoter Jeremiah Gratza. Very laid back, but not in that lame, drippy adult
contemporary way, this show, despite its soothing atmosphere, still totally
rocked.
Kill Rock Stars' The Shaky Hands from Portland, OR were the band that I had originally come to see. I
had seen them in Phoenix a couple of times before, and each time it seemed as
though the quartet had delved deeper and deeper into finding their real musical
identities. Their set was seamless, had little awkward stage banter, and was
executed in a swift and precise manner. One of the things that I love about
this band is the fact that they have a great sense of musical timing; rocking
out to their own brand of garage-meets-blues-meets-folk rock. Lead
singer-guitarist Nicholas Delffs' voice brought nostalgia to me of sitting in
my best friend's car in high school blasting Guided by Voices on a rainy day,
while the rhythm section kept everyone's eyes on stage. At some points in the
set, Delffs' voice had reached that anxious and nasal-heavy timbre that
resonated part Bob Dylan and part Michael Stipe as phenomenal new drummer Jake
Morris banged out wildly inventive beats that were rightfully complimented by
Mayhaw Hoons' fluid-like bass lines.
While the Shaky Hands are often compared to
bands like Neil Young and the Who (most of their recordings have that laid
back, vintage flair about them), what we saw last night was a slight adjustment
of what most fans know of their music. While maintaining their 60s feel-good
vibe, the band performed with an immediacy about them; plowing through
anthem-worthy rock songs infused with familiar power-pop and non-traditional
drum beats without any dead air. In a perfect world, Tucson's Golden Boots would have been on this show. It would
have been a great match!
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Headliners for the night were Toronto-based
indie band the Rural Alberta Advantage. Recently signed to Omaha's Saddle Creek Records, Rural Alberta drew the
biggest crowd of the night with their sweet and energetic songs about loves
lost, haunted railroad towns, and missed opportunities. Almost reminiscent of a
Bleed American era Jimmy Eat World, it was no surprise to me what their appeal
to this intimate Arizona crowd was. The cute guy-girl vocal pairing of Paul
Banwatt and Amy Cole evoked the emotion-heavy yearning of Jim Adkins and Rachel
Haden, while drummer Nils Edenloff kept the tempo up with chaotic disco dance
beats, which provided an interesting contrast between the subtleties of the
acoustic guitar and keyboards. My main concern for the night was the levels on
their sound. I'm not sure what happened after Shaky Hands left the stage
sounding great, but Rural Alberta had the ill fortune of being too loud at
first. Banwatt's vocals were almost peaking through the speakers as the crowd
got closer to the stage and at times the guitar was completely overpowered by
the drums and vocals. My only real
gripe was that I didn't like how their drums sounded. While the technique was
there, I felt like I was listening to a 90s pop-punk band from SoCal with how tightly tuned his toms were. Other than
that, it was a pretty good Monday night.
Last night: Yellow Minute, the Shaky
Hands, and the Rural Alberta Advantage at Rhythm Room.
Better than:
freezing at home while studying for finals.
Random fact: The
band was originally from Mendocino, California...pretty much the marijuana capitol of America!
Further listening: Drummer
Jake Morris used to be in a band called the Joggers, while former member Nathan
Delffs is often in Castanets.
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