Saturday was the night that everything seemed to be under the stars, so to speak. For Indianapolis, it was more like tucked in between a wet, foggy haze. But this is winter, and all the excitement of the weekend — from the Local Music Git Down to Radio Radio to Tonos Triad at Barley Island to DJ Kyle Long at Urban Element and so on — could have been buried beneath inches of snow. With Indiana, you just never know, and we were lucky to have such mild weather for a packed night of music in our city.

Stepping into The Vollrath, amidst John Orr (aka The Last Domino) standing on stage and strumming his guitar frantically, looping it, knocking on the wooden casing and concocting some kind of beat, while picking up his saxophone to exorcise a solo, people were abuzz. “Did you hear the mayor and his wife was here earlier!?!” No, I did not, but the day after, the club’s FaceBook page confirmed that Ballard made a visit to the southeast-side club.

Whether it phased Orr or he even knew about it is uncertain as he played a set as prominent as any other I have witnessed. It had been a while since we had a chance to gaze upon The Last Domino to be performed as a single entity. And by “Last Call” (the song, not the ritual), people showed their appreciation for his take on love and the bottle.

Maybe it was me, but it seemed that the audience was searching for a high energy rock and roll hump fest. And who can blame them with Reno Bo descending from the indie garage greats The Mooney Suzuki or his participation in The Strokes. All this was to come later, and when Holy Ghost Canyon took the stage, the musical direction shifted dramatically from Orr’s bravado to gentle musical intimacy.

What would have been a better fit in a dark coffee shop (if only Cafe Angst still existed), did not feel like a fit pairing for the night. With their haunting and dimly-lit vision of early Americana, you almost wished you could hear the ghostly echos of a steam train, yet the music was so subtle you probably could hear one pass by on the tracks nearby. I will give them credit that they were sans their drummer and Jascha’s slide guitar moved around like the smoke emitting from a wooden pipe tucked between his lips.

A short line to the bathroom gave me the opportunity to run into Reno Bo himself just before they were to go on. We talked about the city and his memory of the last time he played Birdys. He expressed an inspiring degree of gratitude towards the night’s hospitality because for Reno Bo the band, this was their first Indianapolis appearance.

When Reno’s shaggy mop top hit the stage, he was fired up to unleash classic rock and songs from their debut album Happiness And Other Things (Electric Western). They tried one song, then another to moderate success. “Higher Tonight” revved it up, sounding like a cross between some lost ’60s pop classic and something that was inspired from Friends. Then they pulled out The Stones’ “This Will Be The Last Time” to high regard. Their version of “Ventilator Blues,” not so great.

Even though some of their originals bled into the other with a consistent stream of consciousness, it was the moments when they cut loose and let the music take control when our hearts started to palpitate and Reno received nods of approval. And take the more intimate ‘70s-style hip shakers, Reno will make it feel like the end of innocence.

By the end of it all, Reno Bo may have been the band you wanted more from, but it was one of the better sounding shows I have heard echo through the club.

Links:

Pravada: http://www.myspace.com/pravadaband
Grandchildren: http://www.myspace.com/grandchildren
We Are Hex: http://wearehex.com/
The Vollrath: http://www.vollrathindy.com/

For First Friday, Fountain Square looked like a cross between Orson Wells’ Touch of Evil and Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. Tis the season for the near Eastside section of the city to be bustling by pushing people in and out of art galleries and restaurants.

In addition to all the sites and vibrancy that was going on, just down the road, The Vollrath was having their own celebration that packed in a good crowd for a diverse night of music. As space became sparse in and around the bar, the festivity only increased with more hugging, laughing, and joviality than a pack of pirates after a successful pillage.

An immediate sign that we were in for a unique night were the remixes of Hall And Oates and Huey Lewis and The News blending in to other electronic bass thumping, all echoing through the speakers. Over in the corner, newly recognized DJ Liar Mouth kept the energy going through the night and a welcome change from the usual.

Pravada kicked things into gear with their infectious noise pop sound. With the drummer on the floor and facing the band, it seemed a little odd at first, even if it left plenty of room for the rest of the band to take the stage. And not that they needed space because the movement by this band was minimal keeping their own space. Whatever works, right? This formula did work for the band as the sound was equaled out and their blend of songs from feedback-induced rock to starry-eyed pop filled up the club. With lights blaring down on the band, there was no mystery involved, it was simply a showcase of Pravada confident and well poised, playing a solid set. And even though we have heard “Atlas” and “You’re Fun” plenty of times before, it never gets old.

When the six people from Grandchildren packed the stage, things were a little tight, but the band impressively kept a spastic sense of motion to their tribal sounds, building percussion on drums, horns on guitars, songs into other songs. Made up of mostly instrumentals some songs made people tilt their head and bop up and down, while others got lost in translation of maybe too much going on.

Somewhere near the witching hour, We Are Hex took the stage. Again, drums were on the floor facing the stage, but in this case, there was a good reason. The set was comprised of mostly new material with a few songs from Gloom Bloom peppered in like “Serious Sedatives,” a song I have not heard live before but always wanted to. People huddled around drummer Brandon Beaver as if he was on fire. When the opening number kicked in, we all thought he was going to combust, pounding skins like it was a homocide. Jilly Weiss grabbed a tambourine and in an instant she exploded into a spastic rage of energy that burned out into the audience. Standing by the drums, I could not hear much beyond being punched in the face with a hardcore punk esprit. We didn’t know what hit us and in an instant, I felt transformed back to the Broad Ripple Community Center circa 1988 when bands like Trenchmouth and The Oxymorons played there. Before long, you could feel the floor of the Vollrath pulsating with feet stomping and feedback ringing through my ears. The only thought in my head was that if we were all to go down, what a way to go.

The set was ferociously short-lived as the band burned white-hot and burned hard. By the end of it, Brandon was crawling out of his kit trying to find a breath, Jilly was picking herself off the floor, while bassist Trevor Wathan and guitarist Matt Hagan were recovering from the last remnants of a powerful, in-your-face show.

[All photos by gregthemayor]
We Are Hex

Kids in the Way:
http://www.myspace.com/kidsintheway

Civil Twilight:
http://www.myspace.com/civiltwilightband