Reigning Sound with Mouthbreathers, Approach and Miles Bonny and Suzannah Johannes : Love Garden Sound's 21st Birthday Celebration
Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011
Jackpot Saloon
Greg Cartwright has plowed through a few 21st birthday bashes before, so he knows what plays well with a last-call crowd.
"At this time of night, it's best to stick to the really retarded stuff," Cartwright, Reigning Sound's frontman, told a crowd at the Jackpot before starting an encore a little after 1 a.m.
The band helped Love Garden Sounds, Lawrence's record store institution, celebrate its 21st birthday with a set of rock-and-roll screamers till just about closing time. The Memphis four-piece roared through a set of its 100-miles-per-hour-on-a-dark-highway tunes as the headliner of the birthday bash.
"We want to wish a happy anniversary to Love Garden," Cartwright said between numbers.
Adhering largely to its excellent 2009 album, Love and Curses, and the band's previous studio release, Too Much Guitar, Cartwright and crew blasted out a set of blistering tunes to a near-capacity crowd of record store loyalists and townies alike. The double-left-handed lineup of Cartwright and bassist David Wayne Gay led the way as Lance Wille pounded away on a no-frills drum kit. Dave Amels drenched the proceedings in a thick sheen of funky organ (all while simultaneously sporting what is arguably one of the best comb-overs in all of rock and roll).
Mouthbreathers, the last of three acts on an all-local, diverse opening bill, led well into the evening's headliner. A four-piece poundin' rock act, the 'breathers delivered a brisk set of blaring guitar rock, even more spare than that of the evening's main act. The guys were obviously having a good time in unloading a trunk load of sonic blasts on the crowd.
The most freewheeling of all the night's acts, Approach and Miles Bonny, were on second. One part hip-hop rhyme-slingers, another part loose jokesters, the duo worked their way through an unhinged set, eschewing the stage at times in favor of getting down in the mix of the audience. A former Love Garden employee, Bonny is apparently on better terms with his former employer than he is with technology: The bearded MC was forced to deliver his ode to lovely ladies on Lawrence's Massachusetts St. a cappella. "Technology can suck my dick," he lamented.
Before he blasted the electronics, Approach asked Bonny if he would be going back to work at the record store anytime soon. "I don't think that's up to me," he said, before jokingly adding, "I never should have pulled that pistol on them."
Kelly Corcoran, Love Garden's owner, apparently wasn't harboring any hard feelings over the imaginary incident: he hopped up on a bench with Bonny, who dropped a few lines with an arm slung around his former boss.
Suzannah Johannes never worked for Corcoran -- though she wanted to. The Lawrence indie-folk songstress said both she and one of her bandmates applied for jobs at the shop, but neither was hired. She doesn't hold a grudge either, as she's now working with Corcoran to produce a full-length album. She opened the evening's festivities with about a dozen tunes, her lovely, breezy voice playing well off the guitar, drums and keys of her backing band. Johannes' voice filled the room nicely on a collection of her original compositions mixed in with covers of the Supremes' "Baby, Baby" and Big Star's "Try Again."
Like so many young adults, the legendary record store threw a roaring, loud, boozy party to celebrate its 21st birthday. Luckily, it's connected to some fine bands that were happy to help mark the occasion.
Critic's bias: The ringing ears I woke up with this morning are infinitely preferable to the bone-splitting hangover I woke up with the day after my own 21st birthday party. With age comes wisdom, or something like that, I guess.
Overheard in the crowd: "I think I know somebody who can take a look at my car, and no, I'm not going to sleep with him, the fucking creeper."
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