Show Review

I apologize for the late post:

The Fillmore at Irving Plaza is a very pleasant venue and my first experience of an intimate New York City show. The fairly sized, hardwood floored room was surprising clean (at least cleaner than some of the venues I’m use to). Additionally, the Fillmore was equipped with three bars and a small balcony. The lineup of this show –Lovedrug, Sparta, Straylight Run- is one of those weird occurrences where my interest in the bands decreases has the night progresses, so as soon as the openers stepped on stage I prepared myself for the slow descent of my attention span.

The openers, Lovedrug, are a band I have seen several times and never disappoint. I have slowly developed a love for this band and was heartbroken to hear that all of their belongings had recently been stolen. When I say ALL, I mean their merch, van, trailer and equipment. You could tell the band members were still recovering from their loss but I find it exceptional (and uplifting) that Lovedrug decided to continue on the tour borrowing equipment from both Sparta and Straylight Run. Despite the band’s unfortunate luck they sounded good and played a great set consisting of old and new songs. Some personal favorites included “Blackout” and “Casino Clouds”. The crowd seemed unfamiliar with the band however, I feel that Lovedrug’s passion and moody rock driven sound kept the audience engaged.

Up next was Sparta, a band that in my opinion is often overlooked. Sparta played an amazing set complete with their epic, emotional and thunderous sound. It has been years since I was first introduced to Sparta and for whatever reason they are a band that disappeared out of my consciousness. I am thankful their presence has resurfaced. It was powerful to see Sparta in an smaller venue since the first time I experienced them was at Red Rocks amphitheater in Colorado which is a very large space (opening for Dashboard Confessional and Weezer, weird). In the beginning of the performance the docile audience seemed more interested in a balloon condom that was being passed around than Sparta. However, the audience then surprised me -a pit broke out- and remained for the last 3 or 4 songs of Sparta’s set. It appeared Sparta had won over the crowd and with good reason playing songs with thought provoking lyrics and haunting musical content.

The headliners, Straylight Run, have always been a band for me that I have tried to like. I felt strangely obligated to unravel their appeal and I could never really understand why people were so into them. Personally, I like Straylight Run’s musical ability and range, I love the lyrics but there’s just something about the sound of the vocals that I could never connect with. This was my third time hearing the band live and the experience left me more confused than ever. Supposedly, the recently released “The Needles The Space” is the bands best CD yet, truthfully I haven’t had the desire to listen to it (but probably will feel compelled to).

The crowd was totally amped and it was apparent they were largely there just for Straylight Run. The 5-piece came on stage all wearing tee shirts of various styles. The look, whether intentional or not, matches the purity I feel the band attempts to project. The band played a variety of songs from both full-length albums and their EP. The questionable harmonizing of brother and sister Nolan’s vocals still forces me to raise an eyebrow every time I see this band perform. I’m sorry to say that my favorite moments of boy Nolan’s vocals are still when he briefly touches the rough sound from his TBS days. Visually, the band is always in constant motion, interchanging instruments and positions on stage – sometimes there were duel guitars, sometimes duel drums, sometimes multiple vocals ect.

Overall, Straylight Run’s fusion may be lost on me but on this night in New York (the band’s home state) I was obviously the only one. The crowd was at the band’s beckon call and were highly enjoying themselves. For a lot of fans Straylight Run is going to sound tighter than ever and if devotees missed them on this headlining tour the band can be scoped out for the rest of the summer on the Van’s Warped tour.

review by Heather Galbraith