Wednesday
Farewell Flight — This pack of Pennsylvania popsters smacks itself with a self-deprecating label — “unmarketable since 2005” — that would be better suited for a grindcore band with a name like Colonic Malfeasance than a quartet with driftwood melodies that bridge Oasis and Coldplay with gentle melody and anthemic earnestness. But the dig suits Farewell Flight; the band’s navel-gazing aesthetic relies as much on self-effacing sarcasm and brokenheartedness as it does on handsome hooks and comfortable sonics. Farewell Flight’ll sing “America Will Surely Break Your Heart,” all starry-eyed piano plinks and eased-in shuffle, resigned to a broken world, the band wearing a smile like a wince, acting like maybe the song won’t be heartbreaking itself. B. Reed
New Brookland Tavern: 7:30 p.m., $5 ($8 under 21); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.
Friday
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| Evergreen Terrace |
Evergreen Terrace — Anyone who’d recognize the Simpsons allusion that is Evergreen Terrace’s moniker (742 Evergreen Terrace is the fictional family’s home address in Springfield) will be familiar with the image of an enraged Homer strangling Bart for his mischief. That physical juxtaposition of Bart’s bratty irreverence and Homer’s explosive temper proves an apt descriptor for Floridian hardcore band Evergreen Terrace’s blend of snotty punk-metal (a la Strung Out) and blunt-force hardcore (a la Hatebreed). Each end of the band’s spectrum — the freewheeling melody and the guttural rhythms — is ever at arm’s length from the other. B. Reed
New Brookland Tavern: 7 p.m., $12 ($10 advance); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.
Saturday
Hot Lava Monster, The Stellas — Consider this, a double-header of small bands with huge aspirations, a case study within the post-apocalyptic landscape of Music 2.0. Both Columbia natives Hot Lava Monster and their Charlotte counterparts The Stellas serve their rock stylings like Top 40 platters-to-be, with Hot Lava Monster’s post-Incubus brood ‘n’ croon finding The Stellas power-pop crunch in a common ground of easy accessibility. With the rapidly disintegrating industry leaving the proverbial playing field effectively leveled for new artists, the idea of stardom has all but burned out — but that won’t stop these bands from reaching for it anyway. It’s both this bill’s blessing and its curse: Both bands, despite potential, still lack the megawatt star power of banner acts and allow easy approachability by taking few risks — and that’s not necessarily a pejorative.
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| Hot Lava Monster |
This bill smacks of before-they-were-big opportunity, both bands churning out compressed guitar rock built for something bigger. To fall back on a nearly riskless baseball analogy, even minor league teams play in stadiums. And now, more than ever before, it’s up to the fans to decide whether these bands meet their audibly lofty goals. Is Hot Lava Monster the next Hinder? Are The Stellas the next All-American Rejects? The ball’s in your court, reader. B. Reed
Art Bar: 9 p.m., $5; 929-0198, artbarsc.com.
Thank God — As a teenager, notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer would kill animals (before he moved on to young men), obsessed with the idea of seeing them inside out — as much the same way Columbia’s Thank God treats rock ‘n’ roll. The quintet tugs conventional notions of melody and structure back in on themselves until what’s left is a seething, bloody mess of dissonant charges, tangled entrails of guitar melodies wrapping around bludgeoning, unpredictable bursts of drums and strangulated gasps. Still, though, the ensuing mayhem creates some sort of mangled beauty, its brutal genius unspooling like so many yards of raw viscera. B. Reed
New Brookland Tavern: 8 p.m., $2 ($3 under 21); 791-4413, newbrooklandtavern.com.
Free Times, 12/3/08
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