Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
myrtlestock (Night One) at the clubhouse, M.B.
By Michael Wood
For Weekly Surge
Friday night (Nov. 14) at The Clubhouse Myrtle Beach a bunch of musicians and barflies got together to have some fun and to support a good cause. It was a two-day benefit show for Street Reach Mission. I'd review the whole thing, but let's just focus on the first night of Myrtlestock 2008 for time's sake.
Like most rock shows, the night started behind schedule. The first act to play was Electric Bird Noise. EBN, as most local music followers know, is the solo project of local musician Brian McKenzie. On stage, you could see his stage lights and just a silhouette of McKenzie through the fog machine. At one point in the set he seemed to become invisible. He played one long drone piece, which is most like the two songs off of his newest CD, "Le Vestibule-Vestibule Transitoire." One day EBN will probably be scoring Stephen King movies.
Despite The Clubhouse's relatively small dimensions, they were actually able to set up two stages: one for bands, and the other for acoustic acts. This worked well for keeping things running nice and smooth. While the next band was setting up, singer songwriter, Gentry played a few tunes. Gentry mixed modern acoustic emo stylings with a wordy and soulful vocal style that came out almost like a male version of Tracy Chapman. Luckily, he did not pull out "Fast Car" on us. He managed to take elements of reggae and even some hip-hop, and throw them into heart-on-your-sleeve storytelling songs, which surprisingly meshed well.
The next band was called Cape Fear. That was before Friday. The singer first announced that they had changed their name to Faded For Fight, then he announced that "the first two bands warmed you up, now we're gonna wake you up!" Straying from the Myrtle of the Myrtlestock, these guys are actually from Kershaw. They took Southern fried rock n' roll riffs and amped them up, and then added screaming vocals and a general rowdy vibe. Fans of Every Time I Die, Pantera, and Dillenger Escape Plan would have been happy.
Now back to the acoustic stage. Brian Roessler was the next guitar slinger. Roessler is the president of The Carolina Organization of Area Songwriters (COASTAL). He hosted the acoustic stage and helped run things throughout the night. He played a few folky acoustic tunes, but added some flavor by having a flange effect going on his guitar.
Baboon Brigade was up next. These surf punkers opened up with "Wolfman" and had everyone dancing and pumping their fists all drunk-like. BB are loud and raw, but at the same time completely danceable and catchy. They take elements of surf rock, punk rock, and even the fun side of the `90s grunge movement (like Meat Puppets, or Mudhoney) and blend them together to create rock yumminess.
Roessler took back the acoustic stage while the next band was setting up. This time, getting rid of the flange effect and focusing on some covers. He did The Cure's "Boy's Don't Cry," Social Distortion's "Ball and Chain," Ben Harper's "Burn One Down" and "Gin and Juice" by Snoop Dogg. He was turning songs that were not meant to be acoustic into acoustic songs, and actually pulling it off very well.
Attalalya was the next band to play. The singer, Blake Monroe, sounds a little like Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie, but the band is much more aggressive than Death Cab and they have their own thing going on. The music is very tight, well written, and powerful, especially for a three-piece band. I enjoyed their set.
Around 12:30 a.m., The Papaya Brothers, a three piece acoustic band, played on the acoustic stage. Their originals seemed to be classic rock-influenced and being a three piece it gave them all plenty of room for some long-winded jams. But then they threw in surprising cover tunes, including "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins and "Drive" by Incubus.
1:06 a.m.: There is still a crowd but it's winding down time and everyone is getting a bit tired. But there's one more band. The Majora commenced to rock as quickly as possible. They are a screamo band, not unlike Thrice, Thursday, or fellow local band The Hundredth, and they did a good job of keeping the kids awake.
The first night of the fest, more than $700 was raised for Street Reach, which aids the local homeless population. The second night of Myrtlestock on Nov. 15, about the same was made and organizers donated more than $1,400 to Street Reach. So not only did everyone come together for a good cause, but also we had a damn good time while doing it.
Click here for previous concert reviews