BELLA HAYES + OST + STARLAND 43 + GLEN PARKS
FRI JUL 31 | 6 PM | STARLAND YARD
The experimental pop of Baltimore’s Bella Hayes isn’t clubby enough to be called EDM and it isn’t traditionally structured enough to be considered synth-pop. It’s synth-driven, ambient, and has a dreamy quality to it, but some of the tunes are danceable and most are as accessible as the style gets.
Like pop chart heavyweight Lizzo, she’s a flautist, so there is real musicianship happening here, not just getting lucky with loops and beats that match. Her voice, heavily processed at times, often recalls the tone of Madonna’s electronic-heavy Ray of Light.
Fellow victim of Baltimore’s civic horror experiment, Laurel Levia, aka OST, brings even more experimental, ambient electronic sounds. Compared to Bella Hayes’ music, it’s moodier and more somber, with occasional haunting vocals and a touch of dub. The pair are on the Laid Back Tour, stopping in Savannah as part of Neurosound Booking’s Psychedelatronica series.
Local support comes from new wave alt-rockers Starland 43 and the sad, sweet bedroom pop of Glen Parks.
CATCH THESE HANDS + GRAVEYARD HOURS + LEFT HAND HOT DOG + SPEAKSLOW
FRI JUL 31 | 6 PM | COASTAL EMPIRE BEER CO.
Kublai Kanine booking typically leans into the super-duper heavy bands, but this one has a lot more variety. And if variety is the spice of life, one could easily call this at least an eight on a scale from one to ten.
Atlanta’s Catch These Hands play midrange punk with catchy pop hooks, singalong choruses, and a healthy dose of humor. Sure, they target posers for derision, but it’s all in good fun.
Graveyard Hours are a bit more serious, but not very. Their post-hardcore ranges from the snotty punk of their early work, including comical tunes like Angry at the Public, to the more mature and complex newer single Broken Wings. Growth is a good thing, and when you get better at your instrument, there’s no shame in showing off.
The presence of Left Hand Hot Dog on the bill maintains the fortuitous and longstanding alliance between punk and ska. They bring a bunch of horns, great punk energy, dub passages, reggae rhythms, and one thing you almost never see in a ska band: a female singer.
It works really well, maintaining humor and soul. Savannah emo pop punk band Speakslow kicks it off.
PURE INDIGO
SAT AUG 1 | 9 PM | BARRELHOUSE SOUTH
Barrelhouse South keeps to a steady diet of quality cover bands, with interesting all-original bands on occasion. Some do both. Pure Indigo does both. The Augusta quartet brags on Instagram that they’re the cover band that doesn’t play Widespread Panic, Phish, or the Grateful Dead, but the crowd still approves.
This could be because Dave Matthews Band songs fill that jam band void, but there’s a lot more going on. Classic rock, indie, and very competent soul singles that most people know are in the mix.
The latter is bolstered by the strong, skilled vocals from Josh “Beaves” Beaver. His singing and the keyboards used to handle basslines and more provide the sonic standouts.
They toss a handful of originals in the set list that blend with the covers well. Their most recent single, Hot Sexx, rocks a vibe somewhere between the classic soul of Marvin Gaye and Bruno Mars’ modern interpretation.
Their debut release, Out of Control, is in the same lane, with an indie pop edge. Neither is what you would expect from a bar band, but the boys seem to know they have a voice that should not be wasted on the same old thing.
PEACEMAKER + SMUGD + ECHOLALIA
THU JUL 30 | 6:30 PM | THE PORTAL ARCADE
Supermassive black holes are among the heaviest things in the known universe. One of them, TON 618, is so huge it’s considered “ultramassive.” That’s a science term, bro. It’s 66.6 billion times the Sun’s mass, although the amount after the decimal point is approximate, for obvious reasons.
Perhaps not quite as heavy, Florida’s Peacemaker is surely in the top 20 of that list. The majority of that weight comes from the sheer violence in the band’s brutal deathcore. Classic and thrash metal may cover war, as mentioned above.
This metal is war. Never has a band had a more counterintuitive name. The only peace is the space between the songs; you’ll immediately want to punch someone you love in the face, and subtlety will be threatened with extinction, along with humanity. Naturally, the logo is splattered ink.
A family emergency will keep It Came From Wisconsin, who are from Dallas, off the bill. Filling in are Newnan, Ga.’s favorite hardcore beatdown specialists Echolalia. The plodding, head-stomping, tough-guy vocals are shockingly decipherable. They work more like shit-talking threats than Cookie Monster gurgling, a delightful point of differentiation in the genre.
Brand-new deathcore beatdowners Smugd are unbelievably angry for a group coming from the bucolic Lowcountry paradise of Beaufort, S.C. Don your gi and be sure to duck when the fists and feet fly. The music is enough of a beating.
MEDAL MILITIA
FRI JUL 31 | 9 PM | THE WORMHOLE
The aggression of metal lends itself to topics of war like peanut butter complements jelly. From the oldest tunes of the kind, like Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, to modern metal like Sabaton’s Fields of Verdun, the tradition is well represented.
In between those two, classic thrash songs like Slayer’s Fight Till Death and Metallica’s Disposable Heroes presented the immediate horrors and long-term effects. Death metal destroyers Bolt Thrower nearly built their entire career on the subject.
So it’s no surprise that one of the most popular regional Metallica cover bands, Medal Militia, includes U.S. military veterans. War guys playing war music about war themes and all that.
To keep it from getting monotonous, Metallica examines many more themes over the 120 or so original songs they’ve released since 1983’s brilliant Kill ‘Em All. Medal Militia has a lot to choose from, and they attack the entire catalog like a tank battalion rolling over a maze of trenches.
-- By Frank Ricci