I saw The Explorers Club play at the Lions Lair last Tuesday the 24th. It was great to hear there less polished, live sound. Its not quite so straight up Beach Boys live again but more 60's rock. It took them a few songs to warm up but when they were warm they were hot. Unfortunately they only played a very short set. They did get in my favorite song, Honey I don't know why, and it was rockin. They finished off with a sweet version of Johnny be good. All in all it was a great show and I'm sure they will be back in the future, playing much longer sets to much larger crowds.

I caught the Old 97's show last tuesday, the 10th, at the Gothic theatre.I have been a fan for the last few years and have been waiting for them to come around; I was not disappointed. They have a fantastic sound and plenty of energy live. Rhett Miller has impossible not to sing along with lyrics and his sexy little hip swaying dance kept the crowd hanging on every word. Seeing them live really brought out the power of the lead guitar in their compositions. Lead guitarist, Ken Bethea, kept belting out killer leads all the while playing up the crowd stage left. Things did not drop off at all when bassist, Murray Hammond, took over the role of lead singer. The drummer, Phillip Peeples, is solid gold making it clear that one can play the shuffle all night without it ever getting old. If you missed them, you should catch them as soon as possible.

I was able to catch The Mountain Goats show at the Hi-Dive Tuesday, 11-6, and I have to say it was a great show aside from the Hi-Dive's poor ability to handle a sold out show considering the lack of a box office. The opening act was a band called Bowerbirds and they were awesome with a real mellow acoustic sound and a hot girl playing accordian (how can you go wrong). I picked up their self-released album Hymns for a dark horse after their set and it is worth many listens so I might try to contact them for a feature on our site soon. The Mountain Goats themselves were great live; their songs have a real driving power that gets subdued in the recorded sessions. They played two songs off of their most recent release, Get lonely, and it was cool to hear the sparse instrumentations utilized on that album performed live. They played lots of stuff I'd never heard before, easy to do when you have the dozens of albums that John Darnielle has to pull from. Speaking of John Darnielle (who pretty much is The Mountain Goats) his voice was pretty different live, it was all over the place achieving a sort of manic quality at times and I found myself thinking of David Byrne of the Talking Heads. To tie this ramble up, I just have to say that the show was great, The Mountain Goats are great and I highly recommend picking up an album and seeing them live if you get the chance.

I decided to randomly go check out a show this week and was very pleasantly surprised. It was one of those shows where I'm pretty sure my girlfriend and I were the only two people at the show not affiliated with one of the bands or working for the bar but it was a treat. The opener was called Phantom Family Halo from Louisville KY and they were solid gold money. Pretty much psychedelic space rock with some interludes of noise which might be a little to abrasive and/or abstract for the more faint of heart but all in all I recommend it. The drummer played standing up and also doubled as the singer which is impressive on its own, he was belting out solid beats while singing right on through it. Keys, guitar, bass and occasional female vocals rounded out the mix. If your into The Warlocks, God Speed you Black Emperor, Black Mountain and the like this might be right up your alley. Check out their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/thephantomfamilyhalo