A fairly crowded saw one of the better 1-2 punches to close a local band show in recent memory last Saturday night. (featuring members of several current and former Denver bands, notably Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and the Fluid), and , in a somewhat rare performance, rocked and droned the late night audience.
After a very capable set by the relatively new , the Larimer began to slowly fill. It was the closest thing to an “all ages show” you’ll witness at the place, except the ages coming in were people in their upper 50s — with their even-older friends!
For a town that embraces rockabilly and other older rock offshoots, there’s surprisingly little ’60s garage rock to check out in Denver. The Buckingham Squares brought loud and snotty back in a big way, performing songs garage rock fans may have listened to for over 40 years, but rarely heard performed live.
The Buckingham Squares, without slavishly trying to replicate the sound of the songs they covered (the Sparkles’ “No Friend of Mine,” the Haunted’s “1-2-5,” to name a few), superbly recreated garage rock’s unique sonic atmosphere with the added dimension of Hammond B-3 sounding keyboards and lead singer Sam Schiel’s tambourine and maracas playing, as well as adding a grittier edge with some excellent guitar playing.
The band repeatedly encouraged people to dance. After all, nearly all ’60s rock was dance music. Go- go dancers would have been a nice touch and fit right in. There were a handful of dancers at the front for the last few songs, including the finale, the Troggs’ insanely primitive paean to teen horniness, “I Want You,” which ended somewhat incongruously with an extended jam that tore the song inside out.
Under most circumstances, the exuberance of such a set might be hard to follow, particularly at 12:45 in the morning, but Overcasters brought the evening to a near perfect close, about as complimentary a lineup as one can hope to hear.
Unlike some Overcasters’ shows, the band played with virtually no lighting, letting the music be the focal point of the experience. And the experience is what one takes away from an Overcasters show, you bathe in the twin guitar attack, led by Kurt Ottaway and let the pounding rhythm section (drummer Erin Tidwell is a star) take you where it will.
Overcasters’ slower, psychedelic sound saw the now slightly smaller crowd gear down from dancing to head nodding, the preferred stoner rock form of dancing. Utilizing several guitar effects, and a judicious use of drone, there were more than a few moments in their short set where trance became transcendent — exactly what you want from music like this.
Before playing The Denver Post’s 10th annual this summer, Overcasters are headed to L.A. to record their next album with Rick Parker (who has worked with Black Rebel Motorcycle, among others) producing.
Follow Reverb on Twitter! !
Mike Long is a Longmont-based writer and comedian and a regular contributor to Reverb.
