Speechless. That’s what I was after the local show I caught recently at Kansas City’s Davey’s Uptown. I wish I could say that the performance was so spectacular that the music left me speechless. Unfortunately, it was a weird chain of events that led to my loss for words.
Before I explain the strange events, I must say that the music was in fact, quite good. The more local shows I go to, the more respect I have for Kansas City’s local scene (There’s a lot more here than the Get Up Kids!)
The young O’Giant Man opened. These guys have shifted their line up around recently, so this was one of the first (if not the first) performance for the latest and hopefully final lineup. The group has a lot of potential if they can stay solid and practice defining their sound. They do some great harmonies and nice instrumental solos, but they had a tendency to test out too many ideas in a single song. This is a problem that many young and eager bands have, but it is something easy to grow out of it. I look forward to seeing them again when they’ve had a chance to refine their sound.
The lone out of town band It’s True was next on the bill. They easily could have been remembered as the best band there had the singer non-gone and fucked things up later in the show. The Omaha indie pop group had a solid sound and harmonies to rival the Fleet Foxes. Considering they’re an Omaha group where warbly vocals are popular (Conor Oberst, Tim Kasher), they’re a refreshing sound for that scene. Graceful keys provided the perfect compliment to their tunes. Aside from the incident that happens later (I’m getting there! Just wait), my only other criticism is that they got to be a little predictable. Sing, then keys, then instrumental breakdown where the singer sits in plays into the monitor. It was cool the first time, but come up with a new movement or song structure. It loses its charm with time.
Lawrence three-piece Cowboy Indian Bear continued the impressive with their full sound (hard to believe there were only three of them!). All three contributed to vocals and percussion. A recent trend in Kansas City area music is filling out your sound with some pre-recorded electronic beats and effects (see Republic Tigers), which CIB has embraced. I’ve noticed many groups tend to over-endulge in their use of the computer, but CIB was tasteful. They were joined by a friend for their final number titled “Colour Music,” I think, but not to be confused with their “Mathematicians/Colours” played directly before it. They said was this their largest KC audience, which kind of surprised me. With their Postal Service instrumental vibe and smooth vocals, I feel it won’t be long before they gain a large following. They just released an EP. Go check them out.
Sailor Sequence has been described to me as the best band in Kansas City on more than occasion. The trio reminded me a lot of Snow Patrol from the Final Straw era. Perhaps a cover of “Run” is in their future. The difference between them and Snow Patrol is that the Snow Patrol guys have a more pop tendency, while Sailor Sequence leans toward shoegaze without fully embracing that sound.
Now while I’m not sthe full Sailor Sequence converts that my friends are, I do agree that they are quite good. They just lacked in the stage presence category, which might hurt them getting bigger past KC. It just felt distant.
Now I told you that this show left me speechless and I’m finally ready to explain why.
Toward the end of the Sailor Sequence’s set, a guy in a hat walked up to the front of a stage and started drinking a random beer pitcher left on the edge. Weird, but just the sort of weird that you chuckle and roll your eyes at and forget about. But when he put the pitcher down, he proceeded to climb on the stage, stumble over to the microphone by the keyboard and then sang an “Oooh” bit into the microphone when the band was in a big instrumental breakdown.
“Omaha!” yelled someone from the back. I looked again. Sure enough, this was the Omaha band’s lead singer Adam Hawkins.
The audience was confused. Was this part of the act?
The answer: no. Sailor Sequence tried to laugh it off, but when they started another song and Hawkins tried adding notes on the keyboard, the guys in Sailor Sequence just quit and stormed off the stage, incredulous that some drunk opener would ruin your set.
Hawkins wasn’t done there. He fell on the floor in the room by the main bar and attempted getting in a fight. A strange ending to what could have been a perfect night.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say he ruined the Sailor Sequence’s set. For what they did play, they sounded great. But Hawkins did ruin my opinion of his band. Like I said, they could have been remembered as the best band of that night, but that bit at the end was just rude.
O’Giant Man: myspace
It’s True: myspace
Cowboy Indian Bear: myspace
Sailor Sequence: myspace
I’ve seen It’s True a number of times, and while Hawkins may not appeal to everyone, I can testify to the fact that he always makes a show memorable. I’m sure everyone got their moneys worth.
Nobody said he didn’t make the show memorable. They also didn’t say he was untalented. I think what they said washe was drunk and disrespectful to the hometown bands in a fairly unapologetic way regarding his actions. In fact I’m pretty sure that a female close to the band who asked the sailor sequence to “get up there and finish their set” also told them they should “get something to take care of whatever they have up their ass” when they said their set was done.
Not exactly something you want to do when you’re a guest in another cities music scene. And it is certainly not something you should do if you’re scared the local media will print the occurrence as it happened. Based on what I’ve just said, we could have made them look a lot worse.