By: David de Young
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Ben Sommers Bachman of Nightinghales - Photo by David de Young
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The plan Friday was to catch one of my favorite new bands, Strange Lights, who were billed tonight at the Turf as Nazca Lights, but had apparently retroactively named themselves back to Strange Lights prior to show time purportedly due to a copyright issue. Wild. I only caught two songs Friday so I will save a full review for later. But for now I will say that the victory of Strange Lights’ sound is the uniting of Bridge Club and First Communion Afterparty into a supergroup of sorts that is greater than the sum of its parts. Imagine Led Zeppelin playing Velvet Underground songs or some such. It works. Strange Lights is recording with Ed Ackerson at Flowers Studios and has plans to go to SXSW. You’ll be hearing more from them as the year plays out. They are one of my favorite new bands for 2008. And the year is still young.
The rest of Friday’s plan was to see a full set by Nightinghales. A few members of the band are veterans of the Idle Hands, namely Ben Bachman (now Ben Sommers Bachman) and Michael Lopez. Tonight was my catch up night as I missed their CD Release Party a few months ago. My first experience with them was rewarding despite the fact they were missing their newest member due to illness.
The band blew through 11 songs, leading off with the Beatle-ish and bouncy “Sick of the City” from their 2007 debut CD Leaves of Green, Songs of Blue. The songwas sung by Bachman, who was decked out for the night in a red leisure suit of sorts that wouldn’t be out of place on Liam Gallagher or Ian Brown.It was apparent in less than a minute that we were in for some loud, stadium-sized British rock. Lopez took the vocal lead for the ‘50s rocker, “Gun Polka” while Steve Bakken played piano. As functional front man, Bachman is both spastic and charming. Both he and Michael Lopez look the part of the quintessential British rock star so fully that you’d almost think they were posers if it weren’t for the fact that they both sing well and play a mean guitar. The band is notably tight, well-rehearsed and versatile. For a song called “Damaged,” Sommers moved to the piano and Bakken took up the guitar at center stage. “Damaged” was along the lines of an Elton John rocker, in the vein of “Saturday Night’s Alright.” Bakken looked Jagger-esque as the song morphed into Stones-like blues rock. In fact for a moment, I thought it might actually be a Stones song I just didn’t recognize, though I did confirm later it had been an original.
Sommers sang a ‘70s-like rock song from his seat at the piano then moved back to center as Bakken cajoled the audience saying, “You can dance.” Sommers added, “I’ll buy you a Jameson,” before letting on that he was just kidding. Sommers then belted out “Sinking Ship of Friends” from the bands’ disc while Bakken’s honky-tonk piano riffs kept things interesting. The band didn’t lose a beat as the song changed from 4/4 to ¾ time.
Some rockers in the vein of Bowie’s “Suffragette City” or “Diamond Dogs” followed, but again they turned out to be originals, particularly well-crafted and well thought out, and all held together by bass player Ross N (Iloveghosts) and the basic, but steady beat of Missi Sommers Bachman on drums.
Nightinghales brings on good times and an authentic Brit Rock experience. (By that token I wasn’t surprised to see “honorary Brit” Raven in the audience.) Nightinghales are by no means trying to break new ground, but rather re-casting some of the best sounds of the ‘70s and ‘80s into original rock in a contemporary and fashionable package. Their disc mostly recorded by Rich Mattson and mastered by Jacques Wait is remarkably good, and from my listens so far, it’s an accessible, enjoyable, re-spinnable, not to be overlooked gem.
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Nightinghales, Strange Lights
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