It was almost as if you were in the sunny countryside and coming up from the river, barefoot and carefree, only to realize the nearby town was ablaze – not unlike the scene in the movie where happiness becomes confusion becomes horror.
But this was master storyteller Jay Munly relating his twisted tales to a packed house at the Larimer Lounge on Nov. 23. The gothic-country band’s shows have become cherished events in the local music community.
Between the dark gravity of the stories, the relentless drama of Munly’s delivery and the dense foliage of the Harlots’ musical jungle, this has become one of the most beloved bands in the scene in the past year, something that speaks well of both the band and the scene.
Find out for yourself a week from tonight, when the band takes on the Hi-Dive.
– Ricardo Baca
Blue Blooded Girls
Jme White, lead singer of the new local band Blue Blooded Girls, says he is trying to wake people up. Anyone who heard the wail-rockers’ first-ever set at the Hi-Dive on Nov. 25 would say “mission accomplished.” Not that you could hear them over the din.
BBG, named after the Sinatra tune, is White (Acrobat Down, Blusom), drummer Michael Behrenhausen (Maraca 5-0, Blusom), and keyboard/guitar/sampler Steve Gray (M5-0). Divergent as those roots are, no one was quite prepared for BBG’s debut as a larkish successor to Planes Mistaken for Stars.
White complex fingerpicking is exquisite, Behrenhausen’s drumming ferocious and Gray’s signature surf guitar swirling. But above all, BBG is a loud, frenetic, progressive punk band that could be described as Maraca 5-0 mixed with Rush. But while Blusom is part pop, part techno tangential, BBG is tight, conceptually coherent and made distinctive by White’s powerful scat screams.
But since I honestly couldn’t make out one word, I asked White for a few afterward. “No one seems to believe me when I say we’re primed to experience tragic devastation in our lifetimes. Most every generation has,” he said. “It’s true you’re not as attractive as the chick from ‘The O.C.,’ but how important is sex when the sky crowns and our shadows are cast white on the sides of broken buildings?”
I’m wide awake now.
– John Moore
Stoned Emotion
Nebraska snow kept Echo & the Bunnymen from their Gothic Theatre show on Monday. That meant anyone hoping to blow off steam after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend had to bump around Denver’s small music joints in search of listening bliss.
Debauched bliss was a better description for the cozy crowd inside Dulcinea’s 100th Monkey for the regular Monday booking of Electric Side Dish. But this week, the night included a special CD release party for the rhythm-heavy jam band Stoned Emotion. Songs from the group’s self-titled debut reveal shades of James Taylor, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. The band’s set highlighted sunny melodies played up with energetic electric guitar work, cool acoustic contributions and spirited keyboard solos.
Stoned Emotion is billed as a four-piece act, but for this show, extra players joined band regulars Phil Dudden, Jeff Hamm, Karl Christopherson and Charlie Briggs on Dulcinea’s stage. That space at the back of the room, incidentally, is much better suited to live music now that the entrance to this dark bar adorned with thrift store couches faces Colfax instead of the building’s alley, the way it used to.
Instrumentally, Stoned Emotion was tight for its CD release party. The band wove its way through danceable jams, and the loose crowd was with it all the way. The group’s only shortfall is the lack of a commanding rock or soul singer. Adding an equally charismatic performer upfront would elevate Stoned Emotion beyond its current status as a competent bar band.
– Elana Ashanti Jefferson
