re: AWOLNATION - House of Blues 3/12 Roll Call

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Cap Crunch

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I agree with your review.

The first act was boring. The girl was the only one to move from her position the whole set. No real stage presence from anyone else. The girl did have a strong voice. Not sure I would say she was a great singer. She sounded slightly off key, but she was belting out some powerful verses. The bass player looked like he was enjoying himself. He had a few cool grooves he threw out. The guitar player never acknowledged the crowd. He must have been nervous cause he stayed staring at the drummer the whole time. No real impressive licks, I felt, he showed. Maybe a better band around the girl and that could become something better. They were newly signed, so maybe they are still unsure of their talent? Hopefully as more shows get under their belt, they'll add more stage presence.

The Billy Idol band was very entertaining. I wasn't sure after that first song but then the styles and chances they took with some of those songs really invited me in. The two chicks were a nice eye candy bonus. I was up front on the railing in front of the short chick. She reminded me of SA from 311, just constantly in motion.

Some of their songs towards the end were really crazy and had these weird grooves that somehow had me moving around to them.

AWOL was wild and crazy. No other way to put it. Not too many shows have had me jumping around and really enjoying the music. They seemed to keep the energy going the whole set. Awesome stage presence. really enjoyable live show. I thought I'd have a favorite song, but they all really impressed me. Every song they played had people going crazy.

The guitar player was on the other side of the stage so I didn't watch him as much. I did see him constantly pushing the mic forward while he was singing then moving to the side to let the mic fall back down. I kinda found this annoying. Not sure why, but I felt like he could just set the mic up differently to where it wouldn't be in the way. Maybe that's his shtick. To each his own.

The bass player also played a keyboard. He seemed constantly busy. I enjoyed watching him enjoy himself. The main keyboard player, who also played guitar, had a setup of all kinds of gadgets to create all the synth sounds and such. He really rocked out all night and was enjoying to watch.

The drummer beat the drums so hard, towards the end of their set, that he had chipped a cymbal. He just seemed to play with such power that he sounded so solid all night. Great fills and runs. Really enjoyed him.

Lead singer went all out. He is the brain behind it all. He elevated the whole room and took them on a journey. Incredible band leader.

I did think when they played Sail towards the end of the set, the whole volume of the music seemed slightly louder. It was weird because we were directly in front of the keyboard player and every note he played seemed more present than anything he did in the previous songs. I'm sure us being right near the stage speakers didn't help the cause either. The encore was fricking sweet.

I'll say I'm not a big fan of AWOL, but they were enjoyable. After last night, I'll listen to their cd a little more. I did hear a few mistakes in some songs and such, but the fun factor overlooked that. This is all I can remember off the top of my head. I didn't get much sleep last night, but found myself humming their songs all day today.

Yeah that song was catchy

I'm gonna need to check them out more