Did I Say I like a Rocking Guitar?
The annual Viva PHX music festival has been a place to see the bands that I love playing and catch some new ones. This year that included the guys of Rozwell Kid and their praise of the AT&T moon. Granted, these guys were touring with Jeff Rosenstock and the Menzingers so I would have caught them no matter where they played. However, they jumped high onto my radar once I saw them play at Viva PHX. For the first tour since, they came through with two bands I hadn’t heard of until tonight, Great Grandpa and Vundabar, plus our local Fairy Bones opening up.
Fairy Bones continues to impress more each time I’ve seen them recently. I think the thing I like the most is Chelsey playing more guitar with the band during the set. It adds this more rocking sound to them. That is in addition to already superb guitar from Robert with a style on that stage. These are details in addition to the points of great vocals and overall sound. I continue to enjoy where Fairy Bones’ music is heading.
Onto the bands I hadn’t heard of before tonight, starting with Great Grandpa. First off, that name is awesome. Second, these guys and gals are of a garage and indie rock hybrid that works. On stage, they have a reserved, but friendly presence that works perfectly for their style. In what is a theme on my music tastes, there is solid rock sound that I latch onto in their songs. It seems I enjoy good guitar in tracks. I add Great Grandpa to my long list of bands to follow.
The guys from Vundabar then took the show, kept the rock sound going but then pressed more on the gas. These guys were a faster paced with an upbeat sound a little more akin to the Strokes. Certainly emphasis to fantastic guitar portions in their performance. It was like my night just kept having more pressure applied to the gas pedal with the energy going up further band after band. I really dug Vundabar and I’m excited to see they are already coming back.
Last up were the dudes of the night, Rozwell Kid. Riding high on the back of an excellent new album, these guys rocked it. They do it with subject matter that is certainly touching on nerdier culture like the song “UHF on VHS.” On that note, you could say they are a more rocking Weezer with a Nerfherder and Jeff Rosenstock style of song writing.
That serves as a lead in to their entertaining on stage performance. The way they perform on stage shows that the subject matter of their songs is clearly just an extension of them. The jokes they tell and the conversations amongst themselves and the audience reflect on this. Their on stage energy shows how passionate they love performing, leaning into microphones and bouncing around. I just want to keep watching Rozwell Kid perform at any opportunity I get right now.
