WHAT A TEMPER!: Kissing Party

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

GBGB NIGHT AT THE HI-DIVE

Saturday night, I drive part way into Denver and ditch the truck in a park alongside the Cherry Creek bike path where I hop on the bike and peddle the remaining distance into downtown. Once again it is a mild evening and the ride is pleasant. It's Halloween weekend so there are many people roaming the street dressed up in costume. The doors open at 8 so I have time for a cigar before going in and waiting at the foot of the stage for the music to begin at 9pm.

It was CBGB night at the Hi-Dive. According to Jack Jensen who's store is just across the street, the owner of the Hi-Dive and adjoining Sputniks was from New York and he's trying to create a similar atmosphere with his club/bar/restaurant. Bar and musical performance venue, CBGB opened at 315 Bowery in 1973. Founder Hilly Kristal intended the club to provide an outlet for its namesake genres: Country, Bluegrass and Blues. However, the club became notorious for birthing the American Punk Rock movement. London musicians originally founded the genre, but Punk eventually rooted itself in New York. These roots grew during the 1970s and 80s with the help of musical acts like The Ramones, Misfits, and Blondie who frequently played shows at the club affectionately dubbed "CBGB." The venue became well known not only for the musical acts that played there, but also for its embodiment of everything that the rebellious punk movement stood for. Old posters, graffiti and general grime covered the walls of this punk rock haven. This grungy mystique helped the club establish an atmosphere fitting of a haven of the subversive musical movement.

So on this night, Denver Does CBGB’s with SAUNA as Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Accordion Crimes as Blondie, Kissing Party as The Ramones, Wire Faces as Television, and Hindershot as Talking Heads. The music was loud and although I was standing right at the stage, the vocals were low in their mix making it hard to hear the singers. SAUNA and Wire Faces did the best job, while Debbie Harry was blown away by the hurricane of sound from the other band members once they saw she, who was new to the band, was weak in her performance. But still a very good night of rocking music. It was an opportunity for the younger people in the crowd to hear some real music from the days it really rocked. Recorded for your listening pleasure.

The Cherry Creek bike path was all mine well after midnight. Back to the truck where I jumped in the back and went to sleep some time after 2:30am.

SAUNA

Accordion Crimes

Kissing Party

Wire Faces

Hindershot

Download all five shows here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0O5WMUQR

Sunday, October 17, 2010

JOSHUA NOVAK CD RELEASE PARTY WITH KISSING PARTY AND CANDY CLAWS

With the room upstairs done, I spent this weekend going around the property trimming many dead limbs off the pines and scrub oak, with a pole mounted saw followed by the chain saw, which I had trouble starting after a year of having been unused. It's boring work but at least it was outdoors on a pleasant weekend. I spoke to a couple of guys doing the same across the street for a neighbor, getting their card with the intent of having them come out to chip the growing wood pile.

I had plans for some live music Saturday night!

I learned that local indie-rocker and singer-songwriter Joshua Novak was having a CD release party at Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway in Denver. What made it a done deal was that Patrick Meese, singer-songwriter for the now disbanded Meese was Josh's new drummer. I reserved tickets online, picking them up at the night of the show. The Hi-Dive is directly across the street from Jack Jensen's Mutiny Now Bookstore. Also appearing with Josh were Kissing Party and Candy Claws.

Doors opened at 9PM. I also took advantage of this opportunity to try out a new camera and a microphone I'd never used before.

First up was Denver's own dream pop band Candy Claws. A very interesting sound that I thought was attributable to a poor sound mix that did not emphasize the vocals enough, but it turns out that's what they are doing intentionally, voices coming more from the back of ones head.

"Candy Claws, an experimental dream-pop outfit from Fort Collins, CO, have quickly become one of the most talked about new bands of 2010. After turning quite a few heads with last year’s debut album, In The Dream Of The Sea Life, the band built quite a bit of buzz and this year’s acclaimed follow-up Hidden Lands has gotten them even more well-deserved attention from both bloggers and listeners. Perhaps part of their appeal is the band’s unique approach to recording, on their first album they blended their own electronic creations with ocean sounds recorded on various sea shores in Italy, Spain, and The Phillipines. On Hidden Lands, each song contains a sample of every other song on the album (which must have been a huge undertaking)."

Get a taste of their sound here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHOfyfbmmko

Candy Claws brings a fresh perspective to the phrase "environmentally friendly," but that's not to suggest that the band is calling for an eco-uprising. Even if the hushed vocals were halfway intelligible, the words are nothing more than pleasant-sounding nonsense.

It's really just the music: The Colorado group's sound evokes vibrant images of a natural world that's more Disney than National Geographic. Electric birdsong and clop-along percussion stand out among the most prominent noises in "Silent Time of Earth," but they coexist nicely with sparkling keys and a bridge characterized by its strange bass throb. While most of the songs on Hidden Lands sound like spring, this one doesn't feel pegged to a season.

The vocals of Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf guide the procession with their lithe half-whispers. While their vocals aren't always audible, there's something to be said about their invention. Hover recently revealed that the band took sections of Richard Ketchum's The Secret Life of the Forest, entered each into an English-to-Japanese translator online, and then translated the symbols back into English. The result, as he calls it, was "jumbled poetry."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130400395

Download the Candy Claw's show here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AQTBLDJQ

Next up was Kissing Party. I was not overly impressed.

Wikipedia describes them as:

The Kissing Party is an indie rock band from Denver. The band is composed of Deirdre Sage (vocals), Gregory Dolan (vocals, guitar), Joe Hansen (lead guitar), Lee Evans and Shane Reid (drums).

The Kissing Party released their debut album, Hold Your Hour and Have Another, in 2006. Their follow up album Rediscover Lovers, in 2007 has garnered attention and acclaim from critics at The Denver Post, The Onion, Westword, and Filter Magazine while circling the underground Denver music scene. In their 2007 music review, The Denver Post named Rediscover Lovers the 3rd best album to come out of Denver that year.

Download Kissing Party's show here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1F4Z6SD7

The highlight of the night was definitely the very talented Josh Novak. I really liked his sound and the hour long performance. I bought Patrick Meese a drink before the show and learned that he and his new band, Centennial, were going to perform at the Hi-Dive in late November. I also learned that his wife was now part of Josh's band, keyboards and backup vocals.

"Joshua Novak burst onto the Denver music scene in early 2000, young, carefree and seemingly touched with effortless pop magic. Since then, he has become a celebrated fixture of the scene. Recently he placed in the top 20 out of 560 bands in the Denver Post's Best Of The Underground. He is a five time Westword Showcase nominee, one of fifteen winners in the Modmusic Records Indie Band Search in N.Y. and has played Red Rocks as part of the epic Monolith Festival which included acts like TV On The Radio, The Kills, Justice and others."