I got a call this past Friday afternoon from
Notorious Nastie. He said, “Bro, I got
State of the Art and
Flamingo Friday tonight and I have to judge the
Battle of the Bands thing in
Gulfstream. Look, I need you to go to Gulfstream so I can stick close to
my money.”
The lineup was going to be:
Jahfe (who
Steve Imas interviewed during the 11th Annual Medical Marijuana Benefit Concert at Tobacco Road for REVMiami),
King Bee,
Rouse,
Afrobeta (who I reviewed for
REVMiami.com’s Launch Party),
Tristan Clopet & The Juice, and even though they weren’t part of the competition,
Rachel Goodrich was closing out the night.
I was really psyched - it was going to be my first time working with the
Miami New Times and there were also several bands playing that I didn’t know and was interested in seeing.
I got to Gulfstream and went into the
Sport of Kings Roomon the Second Floor. This place is enormous, a really gorgeous venue.
I had never been to Gulfstream, but I know that it’s a new location
that is trying to gain more attention to themselves
especially due to the unfair preferance given to the Seminole Hard Rock (which is able to offer up to Blackjack, while other casinos, like Gulfstream, can only offer Slots).
I was welcomed at the entrance by
Catarina Falcone,
the Marketing and Promotions Director at the New Times. We talked for
a bit about the night, and she also introduced me to her Nana - very
awesome to see someone bringing their Grandmother around a music event.
I hope when I reach my Golden Years I’m half as hip as Catarina’s G-ma.
After that, she brought me over to meet another judge,
Read Fasse, whose
Honor Roll Music was featured in the New York Times article about the Miami Music Scene.
We talked about being young managers and how to effectively work with
others. I got a really good feeling about him. It’s rare to meet
someone in Miami who gets the idea of working hard. Read has it and
it’s a very admirable quality.
We also chatted about Honor Roll Music itself. It started as a
project in a dorm room and they just finished construction on their own
building! He showed some pictures of the studio, and it is incredible
- minimal, green, and industrial. Very modern and chic.
After that I took a seat and enjoyed the show.
First up the MC of the night, whose name I don’t remember (my bad),
introduced the judges to the crowd. Man, it could get really hard to
maintain a sense of reality when someone announces you to a crowd of
people, “and tonight we have
Ric here from
Notorious Nastie’s crew.” So surreal.
The first band to play was Carribean/Reggae group
Jahfe.
It always sucks to be the opening band no matter what venue you’re in
and Jahfe was literally playing to no crowd - but it didn’t matter at
all because they pulled out one hell of a set.
Their music is really cohesive. I would even go so far as saying
that of all the bands that played Jahfe were the most consistent.
Their whole set, top to bottom, was well played. At points they felt
a lot like
The Wailers and during their third song I was reminded A LOT of
Jaco Pastorious‘
John and Mary - more of a Carribean vibe than a Reggae vibe.
King Bee was the next band to play. I’ve heard
about them before as a good blues-rock band. They had a lot going for
them - they’re a traditional rock band (two guitars, bass, and drums),
they had a great lead singer (chubby and bearded), and I was expecting
a lot.
Unfortunately, when they hit the stage I got a sense that they were
nervous, or off, or something. It just didn’t feel right. The vocals
were harsh and their songs felt rushed.
This
may not be the right moment to mention this, but one huge flaw of
Gulfstream’s King of Sports room was the sound system. It’s a shame to
go into a huge, beautiful venue only to be let down by bad sound.
I’m no sound engineer but my best guess would be that they forgot to
turn on their compressor. A compressor is a piece of audio equipment
that, as you can infer from the name, compresses sound so that it
doesn’t get out of control when a musician yells or plays a song extra
hard.
It wasn’t particularly noticable with Jahfe, because their style of
music is so groove oriented (even though there were times when either
one of the lead siners belted out a chorus), but King Bee and the other
bands really suffered from it. The vocals and sonic ranges were
incredibly high and pitchy - just not a good night for sound.
The times that King Bee came off best was when they fell into a
really good jam session and there were no vocals. Not that the singing
was bad, but their vocal parts had a lot of ups and downs, which really
messed with the sound.
Up next was Orlando-based
Rouse. These kids must have brought 50 people with them from Orlando. Their songs varied from straight rock songs, to
Ben Kweller-esque indie folk, to ho’down country music.
I was with a friend and I kept commenting how much their fans were
into their music. Young kids get into music in a way that older crowds
never can. All their fans knew every lyric and the band had a good
repore with audience.
Musicially, for as much consistancy that Jahfe had, Rouse was the
exact opposite. Their songs bounced all over the place. At certain
moments they were outstanding and other times were bland and boring.
Considering that they had a 40 minute set (7 songs), I can’t walk away
saying that there was a particular “Rouse sound” to remember them by.
If I could recommend anything to them, it would be to streamline the
music. Don’t suffer from self-stereotyping, but also don’t stop the
band from developing an identity either.
Would it be biased to say that
Afrobeta is my favorite band in Miami? They encapsulate so much of Miami music that makes it great. Electronic, fun, danceable, etc.
I was talking to
Cuci Amador about it at
(((SHAKE)))this past Thursday. Afrobeta is really sincere about what they do. We
were talking about how the songs come together and how it’s a natural
progression. They’re not trying to sound like anything besides what
comes out. I’ve heard this from a lot of bands before, but going to
Jazid three Tuesdays ago and seeing
Tony Smurphio just free flow and improvise a set with his friends shows a lot of how they are as musicians. Talent falling on the floor.
For the Battle of the Bands Afrobeta brought dummer
Nabedi Osorio (of
Steph Taylor and the State Of).
Truthfully, I’m suffering a huge bought of nostalgia when it comes to
Afrobeta. The night of the Launch Party I was so hopped up on
enthusaism, endorphines, and adrenaline, that I’m not sure they can
ever live up to my memories. Also, I hate to keep harping on it, but
the sound was so awful. The end of the set had a background
of feedback that was incredibly distracting.
Last to play was
Tristan Clopet & The Juice (who will be playing
REV Miami II, March 20 @
PS14). I really wanted to see them play because so far I had only heard their music on Myspace.
I
think that there is no better music in the world than rock n’ roll.
The idea of putting together a guitar, a bass guitar, drums, and a
singer is probably the absolute most brilliant idea in the history of
the world. Lately, I’ve been loving music that takes that concept and
twists and turns and makes it grow while still holding onto that
original rock n’ roll essence.
Fundamentally, TC&TJ is funky in a
Red Hot Chilli Peppers way.
Halfway through their set they went shirtless, which I know I wasn’t all about, but all the girls that they brought loved it.
After they finished it was time to get together with the other judges (
Poplife’s
Aramis,
Dave Daniels from
Churchill’s Pub, and some staff from
WVUM whose name I’m unforutnately not remembering right now) while
Rachel Goodrich played.
It wasn’t much of a debate, one band stood out from the rest. Even
comparing them, in the point of view that this is a Battle of the Bands
for Miami, made it very apparent. There was very little discussion, we
all knew who it would be.
And the winner is…
Afrobeta.
Of course. Like I said in an earlier post, their music fits in from
South Beach to Downtown to the Upper East Side to just about anywhere
in this city. The music they make really represents Miami better than
anyone else that night.
Congrats guys! They’ll be going to New York to play a show at the
kNow Music Series at
Blender Theater at Gramercy.