N'IMPORTE QUOI: 2010

It lives...

Consider Rock and Roll alive once again ladies and gentlemen. This weekend was one of the most epic underground concerts in the local Fairfax area. The venue was at a house located off Sideburn Rd., only about a mile off campus, bringing in the huddled masses of social addicts and hipster urban-obsessed into a new environment, which allowed them to meet new people and experience good local music.

The three local bands, Ugly, Light Pillars, and What She Said, played for a crowd of over one hundred people this last Saturday. The locals and college students poured in for the event, clamoring around the bands while trying to bid short farewells to their fellow peers as they prepare to leave the area to visit their homes for the holidays. The atmosphere of the venue was warm and cheery, due to the good vibe that seemed to be admitted from the audience as well as the tipsy smiles the band members were showing off while tuning their instruments. After the dim buzz of the crowd ceased, the first band, The Light Pillars, started off the show with a hit single and got the crowd pumped to be out on a Saturday night.

The Light Pillars, like most of the bands that played, are local GMU students. They consist of a five piece; drums, bass, and three guitars, a pretty solid line up. The best part about their set up is that almost all of them sing, which really pack a punch. The first thing that brings attention to them is the apparent attempt of the band to all creatively add to the band with specific attributes. They all add in their own part into the “recipe”. It made sense that the three guitarists are all songwriters themselves and are all members of different bands, a type of a Lennon-McCartney-Harrison deal. They were incredibly tight as well, with lots of three way singing harmonies and ended their set with a huge fade out with all the members chanting. They were one real well put together rock band, especially since they were only formed about two months ago.

Next up was some of the worst looking individuals in all of NOVA, the band UGLY. This four piece brings the greatness in everything that is low-fi. Matt Tyskowski, the lead singer and songwriter, well written and crafted tunes are brought to life by an extensively solid back up rhythm section.

While matt is strumming and singing his lyrics the band punches and crawls at your face with catchy breakdowns and hooks. They might be ugly, but damn do they know how to get an audience moving.

The next band, as well as the proprietors of the house, was a newly formed band called What she said; a word play off a cultural inside joke. The band was quite simple, but very homegrown, being that they all had a different type of style to add to the band. With an indie guitarist, a hip-hop/jazz drummer, and a soulful rapping singer, they were a very unique line up. Though it was obvious they were still a band in growth, they packed a solid punch to the line up, ended the show successfully and led the crowd into the after party dance party that followed.

The crowd finally left around four A.M. They left only with a stolen Iphone and all their empty beer cans and bottles scattered across everything in the house. It’s quite easy to measure the amount of fun everyone had while the bands screamed and jammed while smiles and lips met. All of those interactions actually equal about seven trash bags and two hours of manual labor of clean up. But the real solution to the problem I had cleaning up from the mess was to consider how many people met fro the first time last night, the exposure the bands got, the amount of politeness and considerations random people showed to one another, and how much it was all worth one random foul soul stealing something from me, that this night was one of the nights that will be remembered by everyone who attended as one of their greatest nights in their years in school. Given the assumption they were able to remember it.