Neither Girls Nor Russians
Music festivals tend to give you a great amount of music for your buck. However, they make it hard to catch every band and musician you came to see. Either they overlap parts of the set, or the entire set at times. Such was the case when I first saw Russian Girlfriends during the Rebel Riot. Sandwiched between the 2 Tone Lizard Kings and Broloaf, I only caught a portion jumping between the outdoor and indoor stages. Tonight was where I fulfilled catching a full set from the talented group from New Mexico, plus the solid openers, Bad Funk and Wax Castle.
Up first were the guys in Bad Funk. I have to say, they gave me kind of a king of pop vibe watching them play. Think that mixed with some rock. A little different setup than I have seen at Time Out too. Their lead singer, Eric, was facing toward the bar with the microphone. He wasn’t the only one on a microphone, as their drummer joined in for vocals and entertaining banter. It was a great opening set for this trifecta of music.
Playing the middle set of the night were the guys in Wax Castle. They were the loudest rockers of the night with a hard, but melodic, punk sound. I think there were a couple people questioning their hearing after the set. Although I had never seen them before, turned out I knew someone playing with Wax Castle. Josh, from dent, was on bass for them. They were hands down, awesome to watch. I don’t know how I had never seen Wax Castle before tonight, but another one of those bands on my list to try to catch more.
Last up were the guys I knew going in, Russian Girlfriends. Not to be outdone by Wax Castle, these guys matched the energy and moved around a bunch more. Adam, lead vocals, was everywhere he could reach with the microphone cord as he sang. However, you get some vocals from everyone in the band during the course of the set. I learned that “personal humidity” is a term about our bodies creating a moist air amongst the entertaining dialogs between songs. The guys in Russian Girlfriends are fantastic, and super nice. I can’t wait to see them come through Phoenix again.
