ROCK THE RIO GRANDE
On Saturday, February 4th 2006, Rock the Rio Grande happened at the newly renovated Rio Grande Theater in Las Cruces, NM. Because the event was all day I allowed myself a few breaks and did not hear every band but would like to comment on the ones I did see.
JASON and the ARGONAUTS from Albuquerque were tight as usual. I love how Jason really opens his mouth wide when he sings, accentuating the very act. The guitar effects were tasteful and well placed. The bass player stepped into something at the peak of one of the tunes and this helped give the song dimension without being over powering. I consider this band edgy pop, not so much bubble gum, but pleasing, I suspect, to a wide ear. The drummer took advantage of his whole kit, aware of his tom’s tonal possibilities. There was one lyric about vultures in the desert sky circling and then about the days circling. I love this trick, give us something concrete, then go abstract but in the same clear framework. It reminds me of Dylan’s “Hollis Brown” the rats got your flour, bad blood it got your mare. The rats seen, the bad blood perceived.
SOULSHINE was next. This band consists of 2 guys on acoustic guitars and a percussionist. I was optimistic. They opened with a song that sounded like Matchbox Twenty, or something else equally as disturbing. Then they did the Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Though these two covers were expertly rendered, they struck me as out of context. Wasn’t this a day spotlighting original music? A step in the right direction the next song they did was an original called “Georgia Line.” I found the lyrics trite and felt they could have been lifted directly off a pamphlet from the Georgia Tourism Bureau. Fuzzy peaches, southern breezes, swamps and mountain tops. I think “guy and acoustic guitar” is extremely hard to pull off because in that format words are highlighted, can’t help but be heard, and what I was hearing was disappointing. The next original song they did was much better and made reference to George Orwell which was unexpected and appreciated.
NEW RIVER BLUES out of Las Cruces opened with a sparkling new song called “Clorox and Diamonds.” A ballad of sorts about a maid from Zacatecas turning the tables on an arrogant businessman. A jam emerged like cheddar from the shredder melting right in the middle of the third verse...mmmm, tasty. The bass was too loud on this song and was muddy and distorted, but I imagine this had to do with the sound check occurring simultaneously with the first song. This is a drawback of having eight bands in eight hours, but by the second song the engineer had things cleaned up and they were good to go. They have begun to pull back on the jams reigns at times, letting us catch our bearings, so their gallops can be better felt. This attention to dynamics is a good step for them. I felt like their harmonizing is really coming along too. In “Twist of Lime” three voices were twisting together creating a rich mosaic. Also, some great harmonizing in “Whisky Mountain” which was their closer. If you enjoyed this set, be sure to check out NRB at one of their elastic bar gigs.
LECHE de HOMBRE. I view this band as a WWII fighter plane, literally and figuratively. Literally because the bass and drums are set up stage center as the fuselage with the two electric guitars in the wings. The bass is in a state of perpetual soloing atop a cacophonous backdrop of drums. The guitar players take turns singing and sometimes screaming lyrics about pudding pops and oral sex that are meant to be felt rather than mulled over. The band seems to be doing every thing they can to send Harmony and Melody running and pouting down the hall. This has never been my type of music, but I admire them for playing like they are ripping above, propellers blazing, while bombing an arena of ten thousand Germans screaming for more. The guitar players from this band Marc Bourdon and Pablo Lopez were instrumental in organizing this great event.
The EVERGREEN from Las Cruces opened with “Airshows” relying on its melodic piano line and sensory lyrics to suck the small audience in. At first I thought this song was about some kids who lost a parent in an acrobatic air show turned tragic, but noticing lines at the end about firebombing and guns has thickened the plot and like any good song, like any good poem, it keeps beckoning me to listen one more time to try to unpack all that’s buried. They played a new song called “Electric Kiss” which is a sci-fi epic with surprising rhymes about love triumphing despite the purple aliens who run the human zoo. Their songs have pop sensibilities, as they can handle a hook, but each one resonates with an urgency and sophistication that pop music desperately lacks. Like I have said before, The EVERGREEN is setting the local music bar high. Even if this isn’t your type of music, certainly you can appreciate the effort of arrangement, the ideas of the words, or simply the music of the language alone.
CRAWLING with KINGS is a many pieced band out of Austin. I loved their look. Sport jackets and beards. They were very polished but opened with a song that reminded me of Albuquerque’s Shine Cherries which is a bit too mellow after seven hours in a dark theater. They did have a catchy song called “Long Cut” that glamorized the beauty of meander. All in all a very polished band, aware of their aesthetic, that you should consider catching next time they are in Las Cruces.
By t.a.staley