By: Marin Morales
The night was dark and humid, and fit well with macabre vocals of the opening local San Diego band Moonpool. They’re set had a nice gritty flair to it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed their song Dove and the Sea and wished they had time to play more. Moonpool is definitely a local band to watch out for and I recommend seeing them next chance you can.
Up next was an LA band by the name of Swimm, with great back up singers. Swimm were a high-energy band that perhaps used a bit too much distortion but it didn’t seem to bother the crowd who were going crazy on the dance floor. The add-in of bongo drums gave their songs an edge and I would have loved to hear more songs with the both that traditional drums and the bongos.
The New Madrid definitely lived up to their description of underwater-psycic-rock. When I first read about them I didn’t know what to expect of the Athens, Georgia based band. After Thursday night’s show I couldn’t think of a better way to describe their melodic set. Their set was slow but had a dream like quality only enhanced by the colorful light show going on around them. The lights definitely added to the music but at times I did feel that it overpowered it, and could be toned down. They strongly reminded me of a faster-paced Fleet Foxes and I can say that I had a great time, and hope they make their way down to So Cal again.