w/ Everything Now & Slothpop
Thursday, September 15
9 p.m.
$5
18+
Chandelier Ballroom is a four-piece rock act from Bloomington bringing a relatively fresh outlook to the sweaty local scene. Make no mistake: The 500,000 degrees Fahrenheit feel of basement shows and Bishop club nights pervades the band's music at every turn, but there's something more interesting going on here than on most of the $5 gig bills in town.
Jeff Buckley's Grace leaps to mind immediately when listening to Chandelier Ballroom's debut EP, Long Division, despite the fact that the taken-before-his-time crooner doesn't appear in the band's hefty influences list on Facebook. It's a bit baffling, really. Songs like "Man on the Altar" and "Second Grace" all but scream their echoes of "Mojo Pin" and "Lilac Tree," and vocalists Sean Armie and Steven Elmlinger owe a sizable debt to the "Hallelujah" canonizer.
Perhaps all this talk of Jeff Buckley is unfair to the young Bloomingtonians, though. There's plenty of originality to their sound as well. The piano that emerges from the lo-fi grime of "Theme (To a Stardeath)" is unexpected and gorgeous, especially when laid alongside the album's best vocal harmonies. The closing title track throws a fat bass line into the mix but tempers it with some high, almost tremolo-picked guitar, again sharing space with big, confident vocals from Armie and Elmlinger.
Long Division is a great start for a band who either needs to decide whether its next step is to embrace its secret influences or run in another direction. The looseness of the EP should allow for either.
GRADE: B-
Post by Brad Sanders
