A band can never predict what kind of crowd they are going to play for. As groups of party-goers swarmed the make-shift music venue in mind boggling numbers on Saturday night, I thought for sure the floor was going to cave in beneath my feet.
Stereowolf began the festivities in the basement. The Christmas lights lining the concrete walls gave just enough light to see the three-man rock band. Lead guitarist and vocalist Connor Duffy, accompanied by Austin Criner on drums, and Austin Hoke on bass, loosened up the virgin crowd with heavy guitar and soulful vocals. The song selection was perfectly varied. Duffy would play a power-house tune in a minor key, and then announce that a country song was next - the good kind.
After Stereowolf, Jerome and the Psychics began to set up their equipment in an upstairs room, while people filtered outside for some fresh air. After the power source was secured, the rowdy crowd filed in. Their style doesn't fit neatly into one genre - but try self-proclaimed Brazilian pop mixed with garage rock. It works. From the first strum, the crowd went wild. Jerome and the Psychics gave the moshing crowd so much energy in so little space that you couldn't help but jump around.
Afterwards, the room was so thick with heat my camera lens was too foggy to shoot a decent picture. That was when Hotfox took the stage. It seemed as if every person in the room knew all the words to every song. Especially when they played their popular song "Mountain Tiger," off of the album You, Me, and the Monster released by Roaring Colonel Records. Hotfox took a melodic hold over everyone in the room, and the crowd knew it.
It's nice when you can feel inspired again.
Post and photography by Lucy Glaser
