Last night I went to see
Aloud play at Mercury Lounge. I first saw them at the
2007 CMJ festival and then they sent me
their album, so I've written about them a few times before. There were three bands on before Aloud, of which I only caught two.
The first band was
Cage the Elephant. They were... what's the word I'm looking for...? Spazz-tastic. They were a noisy dance-rock band with an attitude and a lot of energy. Lead singer Matt Shultz and his brother Brad Shultz on guitar were quite rowdy - constantly moving and thrashing. More than once, equipment got knocked over. And Matt Shultz was performing with such intensity that his face turned very read at a few points and I legitimately worried that he was going to pass out or something. To my amusement, everybody in the band seemed to be constantly moving (though perhaps with slightly less crazed fervor than the Shultz brothers) except for bass player Daniel Tichenor, who remained practically motionless, even when the other band members ran into/were shoved into him. The Shultz brothers both spent a fair amount of time on floor with the audience, trying to start their own little mosh-pit for two it seemed. While I generally don't go for the whole rowdy rock star thing, I have to give them credit for the amount of energy they sustained throughout the show when they weren't getting anything from the audience whatsoever. The audience stayed at least 6 or 7 feet away from the stage and was in general unresponsive throughout the whole show. At one point, Matt Shultz came out into the audience to try to engage people more, but because of the microphone cord he couldn't quite get close enough and so he said to the audience "you're lucky I'm on a leash." It wasn't that the audience didn't like them, because after their set I heard almost entirely positive things from people. The audience was just lacking energy to show their enthusiasm I guess.
The second band, Eldridge Rodriquez, was rather disappointing after that high-energy performance from Cage the Elephant. They were very laid back. Too laid back to follow CTE. I got bored very quickly and so I went and got pizza, thus missing the third band completely.
Maybe it's because I was hanging out with some of the band members beforehand (see picture right), but I liked Aloud even more than I remember from their CMJ show. They brought the energy back up and they had some friends in the audience, so the audience was a lot more responsive (like I always say, the audience can make or break a show). As before, they played a great rock set. They played some of my favorites from their album, "Leave Your Light On," including
Beaches,
Can You Hear Me Now? and
All I Can Do. They also played a few new songs from their up-coming album which is due out March-ish if I heard correctly. They have a great chemistry on stage, and seem to get along well. Jen de la Osa continues to blow me away with her powerful voice. I really wish I could sing as well as she does. And the whole group just seems like a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, the lighting at Mercury Lounge was particularly abominable, so I couldn't really get any decent pictures. There was literally weak spotlight pointed at the center of the stage and some colored back lights. Off stage on the left side where there was miscellaneous equipment being stored was better lit than the stage. But here's a few of Aloud (I even resorted to using flash at one point *shudder*). I didn't even try with Cage the Elephant because they were moving around too much and they spent so much time off the stage and out of the light.
Today is the official release for Boston-based Aloud's sophomore album, "Fan the Fury." As before, they deliver powerful, dramatic, energized rock songs. "Fan the Fury," though, is a little more polished than their first album. They've really found their sound this time and coalesced as a band. Jen de la Osa continues to blow me away with her strong belting vocals, but this time she blends much more naturally with other lead singer Henry Benguiristain and the rest of the band, creating a much more unified sound. There are some really beautiful harmonies throughout the album.
