Bustle in Your Hedgerow

Stina and I warmed up Friday night with some tasty beverages, and then parted ways as I headed into the Independent. I even arrived on time for the opener - Rocket, an all female alt pop rock knock em on your ass kinda band. Their band genre description: "Powerpop", is pretty much on the money. They had a sorta edginess to the music that was offset by a very cheery onstage demeanor. I was shocked that their entire set was only 25 minutes long, cause they really packed it in. It felt like an hours worth of material.

I go to a lot of shows, blah blah blah, so it's funny some of things that get fine tuned. Like knowing when to go to the bathroom, where to sit/stand in the venue (especially if you are by yourself), when to hit the bar, etc. Its fun to assist other people enjoy their concert experience, as I did through out the night ("dude, hit the bathroom now. . .")

Anyhow, eventually the headliner took the stage. This is a band of true heavy hitters - the two guys from the Duo, the bass player from Ween, and the guitar player from Rana. Sick sick players. I think they are all in New York based bands, and I don't think they ever really played outside of NY - so this was a rare treat.

What they do is play completely instrumental covers of Led Zeppelin songs. Two kick ass sets of this.

It was pretty fabulous. I mean, these guys are all better instrumentalists then Led Zeppelin was comprised of, so the jams really got out there. On the otherhand, Marco (the keys duder) playing all the vocal parts got pretty old after a while. It would have been so much better had they had a kick ass singer present - it would have been the ultimate alternate Led Zeppelin experience. Besides that, those guys can play the living shit out of those songs. It got pretty rocking. I never realized how good a bass player Ween had.

I really wish Patry could have been there. He would have had more fun then anyone in the room.