Windy Smiles, Soltero, and Strand of Oaks @ PA’s, 4/23
Windy Smiles, Soltero, and Strand of Oaks played at PA’s Lounge last night. In the interest of trying to make more people aware of the bands, but while keeping brevity in mind I’ll give a abbreviated rundown of the show. Which means, I’ll skip over the part of the show where everyone had to go outside because the fire alarm went off.
Strand of Oaks is a one man folk outfit from Wyoming Valley, PA, but Showalter had support on guitar and keys/pedals for last night’s show. They used calm guitars, sweeping, haunting, but not overbearing effects as a backdrop to showcase Timothy Showalter’s huge voice. He often is reserved in his singing, but clearly relishes in the chance to lean back from the microphone, dig in, and let his voice overwhelm the audience.
Although his lyrics lacked continuity and were often difficult to make sense of they didn’t really matter. Showalter’s voice is clearly what’s on display rather than witty or telling lyrical subject matter.
Strand of Oaks has a Split 7” with Dragon Turtle and the forthcoming Leave Ruin CD.
Whereas Strand of Oaks’ lyrics are primarily in place to highlight Showalter’s voice, Soltero’s voice is there primarily to highlight Tim Howard’s lyrics.
You know when you’re sitting at your computer checking your favorite blog (enoughcowbell.com), or just dicking around on Digg and a particular verse and/or chorus of a song catches your ear? And then you lean in close to your monitor and begin to half sing, half yell in such a manner that causes the veins in your neck to swell and push against your skin? And it doesn’t matter that your voice is slightly off key and that you’ve added, subtracted, or changed the tone and inflection of the original lyrics? Well, that’s how Howard sings and it’s quite fun to watch and be part of.
For the last two songs Howard was joined by members of Windy Smiles and Alex McGregor of Ponies in the Surf. They played some upbeat tunes and everyone smiled and was happy.
As for Windy Smiles, I don’t think I could ever say anything bad about them. They’re an odd grouping of younger and older, men, and women who are clearly just in it to have fun and play some tunes. They all seemed instantly familiar – people who I’m positive I see around all the time.
I’d rather not peg them into a genre because they draw influences from just about everywhere. So go to their myspace, give them a listen, and then go catch them live.
.
Asides…
Most Bitter opened, but I did not arrive until after he was through playing.
Ponies in the Surf will be playing PA’s Lounge on Saturday.
I picked up a copy of Soltero’s upcoming You’re No Dream LP and will have more on it later.
Related posts:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically each day to your feed reader. If you don't have a feed reader, you can always have these articles delivered to your email inbox every day. Click here to sign up.
