Sunday, October 21, 2007

Thinking "Aloud"

Tuesday night I decided to hit up the Lower East Side and take advantage of my free CMJ pass while I still could. Maybe it was the fact that I thought I was being stood up by my friend (who, it turns out, had just misplaced her cell phone for a while and we found each other later) or the fact that the bouncer at Pianos almost didn't let me in because he thought my very real Minnesota Driver's License was fake (I thought when I was 21 I wouldn't have to worry about not getting in places... Apparently I was wrong because this was the third time I've had problems) but I had a lot of trouble getting into most of the bands I saw last night. They were pretty much all mediocre at best.

My friend and I were supposed to meet at Arlene's Grocery at 10pm, so I went and caught part of The Tomatoes, who were fine but not really anything special. Feeling weird about being at Arlene's by myself between sets with no one to talk to, I decided to wander over to Pianos. I caught the beginning of The Octagon and was once again unimpressed, so when my friend finally called me back and said she was heading over to Arlene's, I left. When I arrived back at Arlene's, Zerobridge was playing. They were better, but I still couldn't get into them for some reason.

However, the night managed to end on a good note. The last band was Aloud and they were actually quite good. Plus some guy gave me a free CD in an effort to get me to come to his band's show on Friday (I couldn't go obviously, but I'll listen to the CD anyway. And even if it's bad, it was free and free things always cheer me up). His friend gave me a free pin too.

Aloud is a 4-member rock band based out of Boston. They played a lot of great, upbeat rock songs and they had a really great chemistry as a band. I would have to say the one who stood out the most to me - and not just because she was the only girl or one of the lead singers - was Jen de la Osa. She has an incredibly powerful voice and really phenomenal breath support, which isn't something you always hear in rock vocals. Even if she was standing several feet away from the microphone, you could still hear her belting her heart out. It's also very uniquely low and deep for a girl's voice, but in a good way.

No mp3s for you today sadly, but go check out their myspace. Tata dahlings.

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