MiniSky: Thoughts About Everything

Country fried rock group Cassavettes kicked off the second night of BCN’s Rock N’ Roll Rumble, at Harpers Ferry, with a Texas-size load of enthusiasm, but the closing band Baker walked away with the sweet prize.

It was probably keyboardist Nicole Boudreau’s leg swinging dance, a la New Kids on the Block, which helped secure Baker a spot in the semifinals - I kid. The quintet drew the crowd close to the stage with the hook laden tunes, “Reputation,†and “Fingers,†captured them by giving away egg shaker percussion instruments and then the drummer finished the set with an acrobatic flip over his kit. Based on his post-gymtastic giggles and blushing red cheeks, this maneuver didn’t to go as he planned. I guess he did not intend to knock over the entire drum set. Oops!

While tricks and favors seemed a little, “Vote me for class president!’’ Baker’s instrumental talent, as a whole, was impressive.  

The Cassavettes undoubtedly had the toughest spot in the lineup but the four members didn’t let an early set time hurt their performance. They called the audience to attention at the first note of “Carolyn Don’t Leave Like This.†And, when singer Glenn Yoder and bassist Coyote Scott Jones jumped onto the speakers near the audience, it was a long awaited display of showmanship.  Next came female-fronted rock group Aloud, which we predicted would win this round. A slow start picked up speed when Jen de la Osa leapt from Ross Lohr’s drum riser. But aside from the stunt, her voice was muffled and she seemed more interested in flirting with Lohr than she was attending to the audience.

 

Third on the bill was Ark Royal (formerly Almada), with new bassist Pete Golan (Waltham) and drummer Johnny K (PGD). The four members of this ‘80s-style rock band were happy to swing their flowing locks for the crowd, dance from one side of the stage to the other and smile at the young ladies in the audience. Lyrics and chords were straight forward and solid but the indie-centric audience of Allston was not gushing.

Night 2 is over but there’s plenty more Rumble madness throughout this week. This evening’s lineup of Strictly for the Birds, My Little Radio, Protokoll and Age Rings is sure to offer a few more surprises.

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 11:41 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.