March Madness Continues

Time to play catch up and post some of the concert pics from last week before the March Madness backlog gets too long.  We'll start with last Friday's show at Vinyl, the downstairs club beneath The Loft and adjacent to Center Stage.

Young Man

Chicago's Young Man opened.  My only problem with Young Man, and it's totally my problem, not theirs,  is that sometimes I get their name confused with the bands Young Magic, Young Empires, Young Galaxy, Young Mountain, Young Prisms, and Young Liars, not to mention Young the Giant, Youth Lagoon, and Yuni In Taxco.  Young Man is the one that recorded the album Boy, an album I actually have (and like), not to be confused with the album Boy by Ra Ra Riot (which I don't have, but whom I saw during Rocktober).

Fanfarlo

London's Fanfarlo headlined following Young Man.  Fanfarlo lived up to my very high expectations, playing primarily songs from their new album, Rooms Filled With Light, but not ignoring fan favorites (this fan's, at least) like I'm A Pilot and Luna.

The Love Language

The next evening (Sunday, for those of you keeping score at home), Raleigh's The Love Language opened at Variety Playhouse. 

They segued into my favorite song of theirs (and one of my over-all favorites), Heart To Tell, after the first song of their set.

The War On Drugs

Philadelphia's The War On Drugs, a band I saw last Rocktober, played next. Adam Granduciel and company once again blew minds, although their placement in the middle of the lineup prevented them from playing the marathon set that they delivered last year at The Earl.

In addition to Granduciel's great playing and singing, David Hartley makes a very convincing case for being the best bass player currently in rock music.  He also experiments with some interesting sonic effects.

White Rabbits

Brooklyn's White Rabbits headlined.  A friend today asked me to describe their music, and the best that I could come up with was Spoon-influenced psychedelic dance rock with a dose of Radiohead, which if you know White Rabbits, misses the mark by a mile, but it was the closest I could get.  They opened their set with the song Heavy Metal from their new album Milk Famous.

Their two drummers included one stand-up drummer playing a couple of floor toms.  Front man Stephen Patterson sang and played piano and guitar.

Their other front man, Alexander Even, sang and played guitar, piano, and occasional drums.

So those are the pics.  I hope the comments weren't too disruptive or annoying.