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Orlando rocks The House of Blues
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See them again Aug. 1 at The Haven in Winter Park!
Alright, I’m back to writing! Woo-Hooo! Sorry for the absence, but now I’m back with a great review of some great bands. Last night, the 23rd of May, House of Blues Orlando hosted Orlando Rocks! With some of the most promising bands performing, the night was one collage of interesting moments complete with a Heavy Metal cover of Dido’s “White Flag.” As all of the bands rocked the crowd with sincerity, the highlights were, well, outstanding. Let me tell you about it.
As the lights dimmed, Afterglow Radio took the stage. Immediately a vibe reminiscent of 1996 took me back to when guitarist Tom Morrello’s (Rage Against the Machine) axe literally saved the art of the modern guitar. As the melody progressed in a heavy but consistently tight rhythm, lead guitarist and singer Jeremy Hagan split into the air frequencies with an effect rarely used. The Digitech Whammy pedal guitar effect, the effect Hagan uses, digitally takes the original tone of the note and forces it through a computer chip with algorithms more advanced than a simple Vocoder that raise (or lower) the octaves without delaying the music from its original tempo.
“Killing Inspiration”, one of the bands most popular songs, with deep and poetic prose, flooded the Monastery-like H.O.B with a haunting and lonely song of regret, a feeling I think everyone has experienced. As I was watching and taking notes (yes I still do it old school), I was comparing a lot of bands I’ve covered this past year. A lot of bands have amazing talent, but their songs aren’t that good. Whereas a lot of bands have great songs, but aren’t as fluent with their instruments. Afterglow Radio was blessed with both ends of the polar spectrum. Their bassist, Eric Palkovic, combined rhythmic accompaniment with skill that actually made him stand out in the band. In my experience, the lower frequencies of the songs often go unnoticed. Not in Afterglow’s case. The bass was right on and exact. Preston Wulff, the rhythm guitarist, kept perfect melody with chord progressions that I again liken to Rage Against the Machine. Last but definitely not least, the drummer Jorge Alvarez banged some of the most creative beats I’ve heard in a rock band in a long time. If you love Orlando, as I do, and you love Independent music, as I do, then check out this band. They are worth a long listen.
As the night began to wrap up with a variety of harder rock bands, the headliner Clayton Senne took the stage. I have to tell you, this was my favorite part. Because as Clayton put it himself, “I know we’re the odd couple here.” The trio of soul commanded the night with headliner “swagger” (inside joke between Clayton and me…come to one of his shows, and we’ll explain it).
So with the prologue about Clayton’s set out of the way, let me just say this: This white boy has got soul! At certain parts of his performance, I thought I heard a Berry Gordy or a Smokey Robinson production. And of course, as you will hear if you click on this link, you might even compare him yourself to the one and only Stevland Morris (Stevie Wonder). What’s so outstanding about Clayton is his ability to abstractly forget that the crowd is in front of him and perform like Ferris Bueller in his shower, carefree and honest. But, in paradoxical contradiction to my own statement, Clayton, along with his bassist Mitchell T. Boyles and drummer Scott Hall, tuned into the energy of his fans and audience like two massive objects that pull each other in (see Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). I met Clayton at the Florida Music Festival but missed his performance. I promised him that I’d do a review on his act, a promise that I honestly thought I couldn’t carry out due to conflicting schedules. I’m glad I cancelled that other thing I had to do, because Senne’s performance was magical.
In today’s culture, youth seem to have abandoned the art of dance. What I mean is that it seems that the kids appear timid in today’s popular genres of music to “cut loose” as the saying goes. If ever I’m at a show and the performer can make the crowd dance, they have in my observation achieved a rare feat. And the Senne trio did just that. Along with SUPER PROMOTER AND GENIUS, Sarah Conness, I shuffled my two left feet to the rhythms that they put out. It was impossible not to. For the next month, Clayton will be touring along the eastern seaboard, but will be back to play in Orlando on August 29, 2009. I’m not the most romantic dude in the world. Any girl I have ever known would tell you that. But guys, mark this date on your calendar. You will have a great time no matter what genre you are into, but most importantly your girl will have a great time listening to Clayton’s music. And she’ll be appreciative to YOU for it (wink). Well, as I always say; that’s me, MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND! PEACE!!!
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