popwreckoning

The power trio Crash Kings took the Center Square Stage on Sunday with their inexplicably heavy pop rock, considering that when you look at their instruments, you have a bass, drums, and a keyboard. But frontman Tony Beliveau plays that tricked out Clavient like no other person I’ve seen lately, with the huge whammy bar and familiar distortion effects typical of an electric guitar.

Attributed to massive airplay on local station 107.7 The End, throngs of teenagers and twenty-somethings alike came over to Center Square, previously inhabited by a roller coaster, to see Crash Kings. Their songs are not only incredibly catchy on their self-titled debut, but the band puts on quite the live show, one that you’d expect from a much more seasoned band with more than three members. But the synergy between Tony and his bassist brother Mike helped make up for the small number of members.

I didn’t manage to catch the Crash Kings’ set at the KEXP Lounge earlier that day, but from what I heard, they rocked it just as hard.

Go to http://crashkingsmusic.com/

In December 2005, I witnessed the most catastrophic concert lineup of my life, courtesy of 96.5 The Buzz‘s The Night the Buzz Stole Christmas: Against Me!, Alkaline Trio, Hot Hot Heat, The Psychedelic Furs and Death Cab for Cutie.

Yep.

That show left me with a giant purple bruise on the inside of my arm from clutching the barricade to keep my front row spot until Death Cab took the stage, but that faded after a week or two. The image of The Psychedelic Furs‘s Richard Butler strip teasing out of his women’s sweater can never be unseen.

I walked into last Friday’s Buzz Under the Stars event worried 96.5 had put together a repeat wreck of a lineup: Crash Kings, Against Me! (total fluke that they were involved in both shows), Devo (…), the Silversun Pickups and Ben Folds. Much to my relief, the diverse lineup resulted in a fast-paced show that managed to hold my attention (normally equivalent to that of a six-year old) for nearly five hours of music.

Well…and I had a couple beers. And I left early because Ben Folds was unimpressive. We’ll get back to those later.

Crash Kings, hailing from L.A., kicked off the night. They coaxed a notable number of concertgoers down to the River Market early considering the boiling July heat. The trio played Afentra’s VD Party in February and clearly earned themselves some fans there — and how could they not? Crash Kings features a drummer, a bassist and a Clavinet player. No lead guitar? No problem. Slap a whammy bar on that keyboard and you’re good to go.

The group’s Myspace just calls their sound “rock,” which is accurate, but lacking. Let’s go with “piano-driven rock with a touch of blues influence that feels as comfortable as your favorite corner bar.” Crash Kings filled the outdoor venue with catchy, danceable jams that had me bobbing energetically despite the stifling heat. It was impossible to stand still while watching keys player/lead singer Tony Beliveau flip his hair and hop up and down off his stool without ever missing a note.

Against Me! filed in next, and was my first concern regarding the evening’s lineup. I don’t think I’d listened to Against Me! since seeing them back in 2005, but if memory serves correct, they were pretty punk rock. Lo and behold…they were still pretty punk rock. But I liked them more this time. I don’t know if that means they have improved or that my music taste has widened. I don’t know enough about punk rock to have much commentary here, however I would like to point out the ridiculousness that was keyboardist Franz Nicolay‘s mustache. Very distracting. (Side note: Nicolay is not technically a member of Against Me!. He’s the former keyboardist for The Hold Steady and World/Inferno Friendship Society, and joined up with Against Me! for the band’s current U.S. tour with the Silversun Pickups. That tour also explains why they were at Buzz Under the Stars. Kind of. I still don’t entirely understand why Against Me! is playing with the Pickups at all.)

And then Devo happened played. I was ready for another The Psychedelic Furs experience, and I stepped into the photo pit wearily. All I can say is that I’ve never had such a tough time keeping my professional face on while working. I wanted to laugh, dance and clap along with the jumpsuit-clad band members. Those men brought the red and blue energy-domed crowd to life as they robot-danced across the stage and robot-played their instruments. The commitment to character made it one of the most fun sets I’ve ever watched. Devo, my deepest apologies for ever doubting your ability to rock a Buzz event. But please, never hip-thrust against when your junk is at eye-level for me and I’m two feet away. Awkward.

I am a spoiled girl who expects only the best. So even after an evening filled with whammy bars on keyboards, curlicue mustaches and robot dancing, I wanted more from the Silversun Pickups. Friday night was my first time to see the four-piece alt rock band, even though it’s been one of my favorite music acts for several years (“Lazy Eye” is my theme song). I floated through all of their set, amazed to see that lead singer Brian Aubert‘s voice actually sounds like that — I can’t be the only one who thought it was a recording trick. One complaint, which might line up with Popwreck Managing Editor Bethany Smith telling me she thought the set “boring”: considering the intensity of the Silversun Pickups‘ music, I expected a larger stage presence. The band almost disappeared, spaced out on a nearly empty stage with purple and blue lighting. The musicians stayed mostly still through their set; while artist movement is of course the choice of the artist, I struggle to understand how the quartet could stay so planted. I think the band’s somewhat calm demeanor might have reflected onto the crowd, toning things down a bit after Devo‘s enthusiastic performance.

Ben Folds finished up the night, and if you read the beginning of this article, you already know how I feel about that. Someone told me the next day that unless you are really into Ben Folds, it probably wasn’t that great of a show (that “someone” happens to be a huge fan and nearly smacked me when I told him I got bored and left). Listen, if you’re headlining that big of a show, and you’re doing it totally solo, you better have some damn good stage presence. All I saw was a goofy kid with way too mellow of songs to fit in with the rest of the evening. Maybe things would’ve been different if he at least had brought a chick to sing Regina Spektor‘s part in “You Don’t Know Me.” But he didn’t. So I drank some beer, swapped high-fives with my friends and went home.

The threesome that could practically be another Jack White project with their hard-hitting tunes courtesy of big drums, rolling bass lines and a keyboard with a whammy bar have finally released an official video for their popular single “Mountain Man.” Check it the Crash Kings above.

Crash Kings are a trio that could be mistaken for a side project of Jack White mixed with a little Cold War Kids and even a surprise dash of Queen, which actually makes them a refreshingly unique sound that’s still familiar enough to give you warm fuzzies when a tune of theirs pops up on the radio. With the success of “Mountain Man” on the airwaves, a tour with JET and SXSW upcoming, bassist Mike Beliveau took some time to talk to PopWreckoning about the band’s rise, dream tours and sports.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: Hi. How are you today Mike?
Mike Beliveau, Crash Kings: I’m alright. I’m getting a little sick, but doing alright.
PW: Oh no. Maybe you’ll feel better not that you have a nice day in the Midwest – you’re in Omaha tonight.
MB: Yeah. We’re on our way over to the venue to load in right now.
PW: Ok. Let’s start at the beginning. I know the three of you were in other bands before, but you were still together. How did you go from those bands into becoming the Crash Kings?
MB: Tony (vox) and I are brothers, so we’ve been playing music together since we were teenagers in high school. We had a band in high school and then Tony went off to college in Texas, but I convinced him to move back to Boston to start up a band again in college. We had two bands together and then Tony met Jason, our drummer, while on tour with Sierra Swan. They were backing her. She’s a singer/songwriter. That’s how we met Jason. So, when we were recording the Crash Kings together, Tony suggested Jason as our drummer and it was pretty much perfect from the start and a great fit. So we went with it.
PW: Ok, I think somehow I got confused and thought Jason had been in the bands before with both you and Tony from online reading.
MB: Yeah, well Tony and Jason had been in a band before from touring backing Sierra Swan. I wasn’t in that band, no.

PW: I also read you guys used to do more jazz sort of music. How’d you go from that to what you’re doing now? Was it a natural progression?
MB: Actually, we went from rock to jazz back to rock. Crash Kings, I’ve always thought of it as a return to our roots. When we were in high school, we were very much a rock sort of band and Tony was singing. Our band in college, we decided to do a more sort of jazz/artsy/organ trio thing without vocals. We were just always experiment and pushing ourselves as much as we could with odd meters and different keyboards. Tony got into playing organ and Rhodes and different synthesizers. It was pretty much all experimentation with that band. It was called Odion. And then Tony started writing songs again that were rock songs and it seemed like a great idea to have a rock band again. That’s pretty much it. So yeah, it was natural for us to play rock again. It wasn’t out of our natural vain of writing. We grew up on it.

PW: One of the first things that I think people notice when they see you live is that you have a clavinet with a whammy bar. How did you come up with the idea for a whammy bar on this keyboard basically?
MB: It’s kind of a, well the instrument found us in a lucky moment. Tony was going to borrow a keyboard from a friend and ended up with this great keyboard because they couldn’t find the original one that they were looking for, so he brought this back to the studio and was like, “Hey, Mike. You have to come check this thing out. It’s crazy. It has a whammy bar.” It’s a pretty rare thing. So we got to the studio and were both like, “Woah.” The ideas for the instrument started forming; we can distort this thing or make it sound like guitar. Basically what it is, it’s an electric guitar in a keyboard format. It has guitar strings and the whammy bar is a classic element of a guitar, so we thought it would work great in a rock band. That’s how that instrument came to be in our band.

PW: There are only three of you in the Crash Kings, so I notice you get a lot of Muse comparisons, but it almost seems to be by default as in here’s one threesome, must be like another. I’m not sure I get that as much. What do you think of that comparison, are there other bands that you think is a more apt comparison or would cite as influences?
MB: You can compare us to Muse because we’re a power trio: a rock power trio. Those elements are there. I think the songwriting is quite different and the lyrics are quite different. We’re fans of Muse and we think they’re doing great things. They brought an element to rock and roll that wasn’t there before. It’s big and they’ve got a big sound and that’s kind of what we’re going for. I can see how people would compare us to them, but people compare us to other bands as well. I don’t know who I’d want to be compared to, but I always love hearing when people compare us to bands that I like. So when people say, “Oh, you sound like Muse,” that makes sense to me. We listen to Muse and we like Muse. If they say a band that I don’t like, then I’m like, “Oh no. We don’t listen to that. Why would we get that comparison?” Everyone makes comparisons, but you end up sounding like your own in the end.

PW: Ok. If you could do a dream tour with your favorite bands, who would you bring on that—living or dead?
MB: We’d love to open for Led Zeppelin.
PW: I could see that.
MB: Another band…Muse would be a great band to open for, kind of a dream, current band.

PW: Ok, you’re about to go out on tour with JET and you’re hitting up SXSW, do you have like a festival or tour survival kit? Like do you have essentials that you have to have with you on the road?
MB: Essentials is exactly what it is. We try to not bring too much stuff. The essentials are just what you’d think they are: clothes and toiletries. Something unique to the band…it’s hard to say. Water? Five-hour energy! That’s a good one. A lot of times, we’re driving through the night and that helps whomever is driving stay up through the night. Cough drops. Those are kind of essentials.

PW: What are some of the advantages of playing with your brother in a band and what are some of the disadvantages of playing with your brother in a band?
MB: Musically, there are no disadvantages. It’s just pretty much that Tony is my favorite person to play music with because we know each other so well. I know exactly what he’s going to do almost before he does it. We just have a strong chemistry that way. We have very close musical influences, so when it comes to writing and arranging the songs, we can do it pretty easily 99 percent of the time. Musically, it is great. A disadvantage, as anybody that has a sibling knows, there’s always sibling rivalry. We always end up getting at each other’s throats at times, but we’ve grown in that a little bit and found ways of being tolerant of each other. It can get hairy, as you can imagine, with your sibling on the road. You find little things that bother you that wouldn’t bother you in anywhere else.
PW: Haha, yeah. I have siblings. I love them, but I can’t imagine touring with them.
MB: Haha, yeah.

PW: I know that you and Tony are both really big into skiing, but I don’t think Jason is quite as much – I think I read that during the “Mountain Man” video that Jason hung out in the lodge drinking cocoa rather than ski—However, with winter drawing to a close, do you have summer sports that you’re really into?
MB: Yeah. Tony and I are both surfers, but we’re not as big surfers as we are skiers. We love going out into the water. Tony loves to mountain bike and got me into it recently, so mountain biking is sort of our summer skiing. It’s pretty similar: going down a mountain and all that. Those sports and I’ll take part in a game of soccer every once in awhile.

PW: Nice. Is there anything that you wish people knew about your band that they don’t now and you’d like to share while you have this open forum?
MB: Um. Good question. Maybe people don’t know that we don’t use any backing tracks in our band, which is becoming more and more common with bands these days. One thing we try to do with our band is keep it really raw, simple and alive. So everything you’re hearing at the live show is what’s being played on stage. Not that that’s better or worse, but I think it actually makes our band unique these days because so many bands do use backing tracks today. We try to keep an old school feel like you’re getting an old school live performance.
PW: Nice. That is good to know and it really becoming so common with the backing tracks that people are probably just assuming that bands are using them. It shows in your live show, too. I saw you a few weeks ago with OK Go and it was more raw and authentic. It was better than hearing you on the radio.
MB: Yeah. Excellent.
PW: Well, I know you’re trying to do load-in, so I’ll let you go do that.
MB: Thank-you very much.
PW: Thank-you, feel better and have a great show tonight.

OK Go knows how to define originality and while that is pretty much a given when it comes to their videos, I can officially attest that this quality also applies to their live show.

The dance rockers recently gave Kansas City a special Valentine’s treat – a free concert for the annual Afentra’s VD Party sponsored by 96.5 the Buzz.

This show wasn’t a typical Valentine’s Day affair. There were no heart-shaped balloons nor rose petal and candle decorations. Instead of the sappy romance, the Buzz decked the Midland out as if it were a dating service run out of a Cirilla’s or Dr. John’s shop. Singles were given ID cards, they set up ridiculous games such as condom racing and giant penis inflatables for a cock ring toss, and they made drink specials such as the “Blow Me Brian.”

Though it was a free show for 18 and over, the event quickly “sold out,” meaning the venue reached its roughly 2,500 capacity just after the first opener, the rock/hip hop group Paper Tongues finished playing. The trio in the Crash Kings had the privilege of playing to a full house early in the night, a rarity at events such as this where most usually wait to show up just in time for the headliner. This is a group that seems like it would have been yet another one of the genius side projects cooked up by Jack White and they played as if they had the years of stage experience that White carries. Crash Kings weren’t intimidated by the crowd and quickly captured the attention for all with their vocally-driven rock tunes. The instrumentation was light in arrangement, but executed with great skill. Though only three in number, the group found fullness with the typical instruments (guitar, drums) and with the aid of a few tricks such as a whammy bar (yes, a whammy bar) on the keyboard. Ending out with current radio single “Mountain Men,” Crash Kings played a strong and memorable set that ensured Kansas City knew why they are the “kings.”

Buzz show favorites Company of Thieves took to the stage next. The indie rockers that sing of pop culture and authors have played many shows for 96.5 the Buzz in Kansas City, so their set was a familiar one. The audience knew when to clap and sing and even dance – at times even mimicking the frontwoman’s trademark windmill arm dance move. CoT did play a few new songs, but despite the change ups, the performance was lackluster compared to what they’ve done for KC in the past. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t mind blowing either: the main fault being that their songs have a tendency to blend and that the vocals were getting muffled in the mix hitting the house.

When Ok Go walked on stage to begin their set, the simple entrance was a modest understatement to the bigness that was to come. The guys apologized if they seemed tired after flying to KC following a 4 a.m. work session for their second video to “This Too Shall Pass” (they still had paint splatters on their shoes from the shoot), but apologies were unnecessary. As stated earlier, this band is the definition of original and they quickly showed that despite this modest start, their live show would be just as unique as their videos. As a giant homage to their videos, the main set piece was a video screen that sometimes showed wallpaper patterns, but for the most part showed the video angle from a camera attached to singer Damian Kulash‘s microphone. The ridiculous camera angles made a fun backdrop as Kulash danced with microphone singing “White Knuckles” and “Get Over It” to get the show started.

Unsurprisingly, the audience roared with excitement when the band hit their stride and performed “Here It Goes Again,” which holds its own live without antics. It’s a well-crafted song: great guitar riffs, nice beat, great vocal harmonies, so the audience praise is deserved.

The first half of OK Go’s performance was about proving that they were a quality band without the gimmicks. With “Here It Goes Again,” they had confirmed with their near flawless performance that they are musicians first. After that the band seemed more content throwing in their personal flairs.

“I live in the future and tomorrow is Sunday. So, we thought we’d play the instrument that God, himself, invented: the hand bells,” said singer Damian Kulash as a the rest of the guys carried a large table draped in red cloth and covered in a full set of hand bells to the front center of the stage. “You need OK Go to save you.”

Now while it’s questionable if OK Go music can actually save souls, seeing four grown men put on gloves and hold a packed venue’s attention as they played “What to Do” with hand bells is a sort of a miracle and probably made a few souls smile.

After that impressive display, the band played a few more tunes before taking a break before the encore. Now this is what an encore is all about. Picture this: the venue lights are dark, but then, lights come on spelling “OK GO” across the center of the stage. As the opening chords to “WTF?” sound out across the speaker system, the light up letters break apart and it is revealed to be the backside of the jackets of the individual band members as the guys swivel to face the audience. The fun light display doesn’t stop there though, as the guitars and bass are decked out in fuzz, lasers and a neon light outline. As the guys danced playing their instruments, they made the lights dance on the walls and in turn, made the audience dance all the more.

The final song of the night said it all. These guys are “Invincible” when it comes to fresh ideas and a great live show.

Set List:
White Knuckles
Get Over It
Shortly Before the End
I Want You So Bad I Can’t Breathe
Oh Lately It’s So Quiet
Don’t Ask Me
Here it Goes Again
What To Do (Hand bells)
Last Leaf
This Too Shall Pass
Do What You Want
///
WTF?
Invincible

After Mapquest took my friend and I on the most illogical route to El Corazon in Seattle, we arrived just in time as the doors opened to see Rooney, Tally Hall and Crash Kings on the Wild One tour on Wednesday. Thankfully, we only had to wait outside for about ten minutes, because it was pretty darn close to freezing.

El Corazon is a small, but fairly intimate venue with a great view from all vantage points. That night, the teenybopper crowd filling El Corazon differed starkly from those who worked there, covered in piercings and tattoos, dark hoodies and unkempt facial hair. I liked the odd juxtaposition, as it fit the contrasting lineup. The Crash Kings were up first, with their three-piece of Tony Beliveau on vocals and keyboard, his brother Mike Beliveau on bass and Jason Morris on drums. Tony was quite the showman, rocking out with a clavinet, a customized keyboard with guitar strings and a large whammy bar. Mike played with multiple amps, making music both full and raw without a guitar, leading to rather a unique sound.

The three-piece Crash Kings played a short, but strong set, including first single “Mountain Man,” as well as other crowd-pleasers “1985,” “Raincoat,” “You Got Me” and “It’s Only Wednesday,” which was recently featured in the film “Zombieland.” I hadn’t heard much of their music before the show, but I was thoroughly impressed with their stage presence, matching the intimacy of the venue with their brotherly synergy.

After their half-hour, Tally Hall came up on stage to set up their instruments, clad in suit shirts and vests, as well as fake mustaches to match their hair color. It fit Tally Hall’s persona perfectly, as they’re pretty much the nerdiest band I’ve heard since They Might Be Giants. Seriously, they referred to their own music as “wonky rock.”

What I love so much about Tally Hall is how funny they are, but they are genuinely good musicians, and they harmonize wonderfully, with guitarists Joe Hawley, Rob Cantor, keyboardist Andrew Horowitz and bassist Zubin Sedghi all bringing their own vocal style. To my delight, Tally Hall played some new songs, meaning a new record coming possibly soon, as it’s been a good three years since Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. But they did play a few of the hits from ,MMMM: “Welcome to Tally Hall,” “The Bidding,” “Ruler of Everything,” and “Good Day.” My favorite song was actually during Horowitz’s one singing part, “The Whole World and You,” and they got the whole crowd clapping with Horowitz’s adorable subtle lisp. The crowd surely loved the dapper crew, as the youngins surrounding me sang along to all of the words.

Cantor and Hawley had the most charm, saying that it was “an honor and a pleasure to be playing with Rooney and Crash Kings,” causing everyone to cheer loudly, so then they’d say it randomly throughout the half-hour set. I would have preferred longer than half an hour, and it would have been plausible, as we hit the road just after 11. An hour would have given them more time to banter, showing off their unique personas. But I was happy just the same.

Rooney was up next.

Following a long intro of the “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” theme music, building the palpable anticipation, it was obvious that most people there came to see Rooney. They were met with screaming girls, reminiscent of the reaction that the Jonas Brothers might get, but with a few token drunk guys.

The foursome came out cool and casual, and started off with “Stay Away” off their eponymous debut back in 2003. It gave me a weird flashback to a little film that you may have seen at one point – “The Princess Diaries,” yeah, cause front man Robert Schwartzman was in that movie as Michael Moscovitz, Anne Hathaway’s love interest. As was the rest of Rooney, as Michael’s band. Sure, the movie was eight years ago, but I just can’t seem to get it out of my head.

That soon left my mind, as I moved from the one side of the stage where bassist Matthew Winter seemed to not be having any fun to the other side of the stage where guitarist Taylor Locke captivated the crowd with his sweet riffs and undeniably flowy hair. Schwartzman did most of the talking, leading the room through a set list of oldies but goodies such as “Blueside,” “Daisy Duke”  and “Popstars,” which Schwartzman said they hadn’t played in a while, as well as brand new songs. One new song titled “Wild One” let drummer Ned Brower actually sing and he was quite good.

Around 10:40, Schwartzman thanked Seattle profusely for being so great, and it caught me off guard, but made everyone laugh and cheer when Locke started playing random opening riffs from classic Seattle rock songs from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden.

“Ned’s from here, so we can do that,” Schwartzman said, “Well, born in Chapel Hill and raised in Seattle.”

It made me smile. But nothing made anyone smile quite as much as the guy standing behind me who kept shouting “I Should Have Been After You” all night. He finally got his wish during the encore.

“Who wants ‘Simply Because?’” Schwartzman asked the crowd.

People cheered.

“Tell Me Soon?”

People cheered.

“How about ‘I Should Have Been After You?’”

And people went nuts.

“Okay, we’ll do it for that guy this one time.”

I was fine with that, as “I Should Have Been After You” is one of my favorite Rooney songs.

At the end of the night, my friend had a completely different experience watching Rooney on the opposite side of the stage as I did. So I guess it’s based on your vantage point. Robert’s the conversationalist, Ned’s got the charm and Taylor’s got the charisma.

And Rooney’s surely got the light and bouncy pop rock to get you dancing, even on a Wednesday night before finals week.

Rooney: website | myspace