My night of rock!

On Friday night, I headed out into the rain-soaked New Hampshire evening to catch two local rock shows. My first stop of the evening was at the Hillsboro American Legion Hall to see Manchester band Capture Caturra and Imaginary Friends Club Band. The hall was filled with metal studded, blue-haired teenagers with angular haircuts, along with the requisite local police presence. The odd odor of stale cigarette smoke combined with fish sticks hung in the air as Capture Caturra were first to take the stage.

At first, the audience had to deal with some technical issues with a non-functioning microphone, but once they were fixed, the charismatic young singer got the energy going by cheering the audience to come “dance and jump” as they launched into their set. Sounding a little like The Killers with their heavy electronic clips, wails and buzzes with a little 311 thrown in, Capture Caturra could be quickly labeled as just another emo band, but that’s a snap judgment. For a band so young and new, these guys have surprising potential that could be heard despite the poor equipment. Songs like “To the Sirens Eyes” and “Patience” show that they’ve got room to grow. Give them a little time and I can see these guys playing more venues around the state.

I really wish I could have seen the other bands on that night’s bill – sorry! But, I had to book it over to Concord to catch Burlington, Vermont’s own Silent Mind. This trio featuring Jamie Bright (guitar, vocals), Jonny Rizzo (bass), and Jay Baskowski (drums) brought a mix of rock, funk, and indie sounds to The Barley House. Again, there were sound adjustment issues at first, but it was more out of the band wanting to really get the levels right, rather than technical difficulties. The original songs they did were reminiscent of early Incubus stuff, and I was pleasantly surprised at singer Jamie Bright’s nice vocals and even more surprised at his guitar skills, which were tight as hell. And though there were guitar solos galore, they weren’t to a long, obnoxious extent – he really knew how to keep that in check. At one point, Bright told the audience that the bar’s management “want everything down” in terms of sound levels, which – to be honest – really kind of defeats the purpose of a live rock show, doesn’t it?

Lower volume or not, the rock sounds kept coming and though most bands do cover songs, I have to say that I was sort of surprised by some of their choices. Yes, they did The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, some Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz, but they also did a pretty good cover of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, as well as the unusual choice of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s “Sir Psycho Sexy.” Unfortunately, Bright’s voice wasn’t quite enough to handle the rock vocals of some of the songs, but it wasn’t due to poor vocals – actually, quite the opposite. Bright’s voice is almost too pretty to be able to do the harder rock songs of the Stones or Hendrix properly, and was better suited to the Beatles “Come Together” that they did (and I usually don’t like covers of Beatles songs!) Though at times, they seemed distracted by sound/instrument problems and there were some drumming slips with the Hendrix song, Silent Mind is a band that communicates well with each other on stage and are a pretty charismatic group. My only wish is that at their next NH show, they’d do the Pepper’s “Suck My Kiss.” I think they’d nail that one.