The Night Marchers, Colour Revolt and The Muslims at the Bottom of The Hill, San Francisco CA
A couple of weeks ago I posted tour dates for West Coast tour dates for John “Speedo” Reis’ latest project The Night Marchers. Being a huge fan of Speedo I was excited especially since The Night Marchers were accompanied by the southern, indie, noise rockers, Colour Revolt. So in order to service our Rock and Roll needs and to escape triple digit temperatures my friend Charan and I took the short journey to lovely San Francisco.
The night begun with San Diego natives The Muslims. I had been to there MySpace earlier in the week and was anticipating their performance. Unfortunately, after skipping dinner to make it to SF on time I was starving. Charan and I ran over to the nearest pub. The service was a little slow, but very friendly, so instead of seeing the Muslims I got to watch sport highlights of the Gamecocks losing to Vanderbilt (I’ve erased that from my memory!). The next day I spent a couple of minutes on YouTube and realized I indeed missed a good band. The Muslims are a tight garage rock band similar to The Night Marchers. Next time I’ll just hit the drive thru at In and Out instead.
I had been waiting a long time for this show. I have been listening to Colour Revolt for more than a year now and never once had the chance to see them. As great as the music of Colour Revolt is their performance was average. They never seemed to break free from the angst and give us the diversity of sound, dynamics and emotion that they supply on the albums. The band mostly stayed still, never exploring the stage or audience. If I hadn’t of known what the band was capable of I would have swore they were novices. They just seemed awkward. Their music has much more style and contrast than what they played that night.
Sporting a look that Charan described as like that of an accountant, Speedo and the boys took the stage to close the night out. After making some quick jokes about Burning Man (his improved humor is that of legend) the band tore into “Closed For Inventory”. The night continued with a barrage of garage inspired rock only briefly pausing for tune-ups and more humor. Witnessing the band demolished my expectations. Like any good live performance it made me reconsider my impressions of their first release. Every song sounded tight, strong and of the caliber of Hot Snakes, RFTC, etc… etc… We were even treated to some new tracks “Scene Report” and “Fisting the Fanbase” (careful when searching for this one on youtube).
