Thursday, October 23, 2008

Adventures at the
Tigers Can Bite You CD Release Party

It has been a whirlwind couple of days for me - and I have been a little wound up and pretty exhausted. On Tuesday, I caught a 3:40PM flight to LA. At 8:50AM the next day, I was on a plane back. Not too much time to spend in the city of dreams, however I did fit in an appearance Tigers Can Bite You's CD Release Party.

I arrived at Boardner's of Hollywood just a little after nine, and met up with the trio of individuals that make up TCBY - Dave, Andrew and Cindy. I handed off some CDs to them, which I had just received the day before. It turned out to be a great night overall. Joe Fielder from Radio Free Silverlake did a great job putting on the event. I got to meet some new people and some more bands which is always great, and I even walked away with some new music in my hands.

The French Semester opened the evening up, and they had a great mellow, yet upbeat sound. It had a great jangly, 1960s vibe and I will definitely be checking out more from these guys.

TCBY were up next, and this was only the second time I'd seen the band live - and the first time I have seen them as a trio. Being a trio emphasizes each individual element that much more, and thus, things seemed to take on a more experimental feel. Each song seemed to end with a great crash of guitar distortion, pounding drums, and dark keyboards. The set was very interesting - beginning with a handful of early tracks and then nearly every song from the new record in succession. I dug it. Josiah Mazzaschi of Light FM joined the band onstage on guitar for the last two songs, creating an even greater wall of sound.

Light FM then capped off the evening - celebrating a CD release of their very own. Beginning with two new tracks, "The High" and "Black Magic Marker" both characterize the band well - sonic sugar with some dark undertones as well. The crowd pleasure, though, was the second-to-last track, "Body Bag," which can be found on the band's 2007 release, Save the Drama.

I left the club around 1, caught just a few hours of sleep, and soon I was on a plane back to San Francisco. On the way back, I listened to the new TCBY album - Steve Ward Hears Voices - and I have to say I am really excited to be releasing it.

Steve Ward Hears Voices comes out next week!

1 comment:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

A whirlwind trip for sure, but it sounds like it was one well worthwhile.