2005 Westword Music Showcase
Okay, before I go any further, head over to Matson Jones’ website and download “A Little Bit of Arson Never Hurt Anyone.”
Last Saturday we hit the 2005 Westword Music Showcase. Six stages at different venues around the Golden Triangle area of Denver - including a festival-style outdoor stage - 60+ bands, $5. Easily the concert value of the summer. The main stage lineup included recent major label signees Love .45 (comically predictable, to my ears) and Boulder buzz band Rose Hill Drive (talented, but a little jammy for a showcase like this) - which Westword music editor described as “one of the best bands to come out Colorado, ever, ever, ever.”
In this format of short 30-45 minute sets the most successful bands pack their sets with lots of tight, distinctive songs. Jam bands typically feel a little mis-placed in these shows - though Polytoxic played a tight little set laced with jams. Funk band Bop Skizzum played a great set of edgy funk highlighted by interesting horn charts and solid tunes. Stacking the audience can also help generate buzz around a set - as the Swayback demonstrated in their rollicking set in the intimate Alcoma Center.
Interestingly, the two real stand-outs were not from Denver. Boulder’s Hot IQs rocked through a set of stunningly consistent material in the Interpol-goes-power-pop genre. Riding high on their cover story in this week’s Westword, Fort Collins’ Matson Jones was the most perfectly realized pop concept I’ve seen in years. A guitar-less punk band, fronted by twin-looking women seated side-by-side sharing the lead vocals and sawing away on cellos. That’s right: cellos. Add a bowed upright bass, a physically vigorous drummer, and dress the band formally in ties and skirts. Conceptually brilliant. And amazingly, Matson Jones executed it perfectly. The songs are short, angry, dynamic, and surprisingly varied.
With the rest of the country rapidly discovering Devotchka (and their rumored signing with Atlantic), Matson Jones is definitely THE band to watch in Colorado right now.