Since By Man 8/13/05 at Bottom Lounge

Last night I went to see Since By Man play at the Bottom Lounge. I ended up having to go by myself because no one I knew either could, or wanted to, go with, not even for free! Remind me to kill all of my friends seeing as no one stepped up to the plate to accompany me!

After a pretty easy drive (at least compared to the same time last week when I went to see Planes Mistaken for Stars at the same place at the same time) I spent damn near a half hour looking for a parking place. I was getting really frustrated and was burning up what little gas I had left in the car trying to find a spot on the street somewhere. Just as I was about to give up and just go home, I finally found one that was a healthy walk from the club. I didn’t mind the walk because it was so nice out and it was a little bit of exercise, not to mention I only had to feed the parking meter 50 cents instead of giving in and paying an assload of cash to park in some lot somewhere in the area.

When I arrived, the second of five bands was playing. Yes, another five band bill. I said it the other day and I’ll say it again for those not paying attention, five bands on a bill is too many! I knew this ahead of time unlike the other night, so I made a point to leave later than I normally would since I never heard of any of the bands on this bill except for the one I was going to see.

Black Print

The band that was on stage playing was called Black Print. They were a sort of DC influenced band that weren’t bad at all. While I’d probably not buy their record if they had one, I wouldn’t mind if I ended up having to see them again opening for another show I’m at. Nothing overly new or exciting, but still decent.

Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire took the stage next. They were sort of like a Sunny Day Real Estate meets Jawbreaker, meets that particular style of indie rock in general. They had a female singer who had a really nice voice and while their music was definitely more in the indie rock/pop vein, they still had cool tempo changes and some harder parts. SDRE is a pretty fair comparison to describe the sound. I really liked them and this show was their “CD release” show. Had I any money in my wallet, I’d have picked up their CD. I hope to get that in the future sometime and I’d definitely be happy to see them play again.

Since By Man

Next up, the reason I left the house that evening, Since By Man. It is no secret that Since By Man is another one of the “select few” of newer bands that really excite me and that I make a point to go see every time they play here if possible. I think this was my 5th time or so seeing them, I have now lost track, and they delivered the goods as usual. Actually, of all the times I’ve seen them, this evening they had the most fury, energy, and reckless abandon of any of their shows I’ve seen before. The band was all fired up from the first chord and barely came up for air between songs. Lots of intensity and energy like the band was just infused with rocket fuel and were given a second life.

Since By Man

They played two new songs from their forthcoming album, both of which were far better than anything from their most recent EP (which is quite good, don’t get me wrong). They played a song from their EP (the best one on it in my opinion), and a few off their first album. Every song was great and the band was just so into it that it made the songs feel that much more powerful. If I had to complain about anything it was the vocals were very hard to hear, and that I wish they would have played a few more songs.

Since By Man

I didn’t even bother to stick around for the headlining band called Colossal. I have never heard of them before and the description on the website didn’t really entice me to want to stick around as it didn’t sound like a band I’d be into, especially after the greatness of Since By Man.

All in all, another fine show and was worth the trip, and even having to fly solo. There is a few more pictures here if you want to click below. I had a pretty good batch overall and as I always say, the rest will someday find their way up onto the Spontaneous Combustion site when I finally get some time to update that images section, which is long overdue. Many thanks to Revelation Records for the guest list action.

Since By Man