Can You Still Find A Gem In The LA Music Scene? by Ron Powers

At the Whisky a Go Go, Saturday, January 6, 2007, the opening band was Vekstar (Can hear them on my space if you are intereseted.) Some nice tunes on My Space, but the live performance didn't quite cut it for the audience. The band stood there looking rather bored and disinterested, and the audience quickly followed suit. I like to look around at the effect the performers make on the audience, tells me what other people think. A band should communicate to their audience. One of the basic principles of performance. Vekstar didn't.

Their performance: poor, boring; Musicianship: Decent; Vocals: lacking energy live, (sound better on My Space); Creativity: poor, after a while it sounded like one long song. Audience rapport: none, people were talking to each other and not many were watching the band as they played. Final analysis. Time to go back to the drawing board. Regroup. Something is not working here.

Second up: Dead Sara (Can hear them on my space if you are interested.) What can I say. Dead Sara
Rocks! The lackluster bored audience became very intent and heads began boppin' as soon as Dead Sara took the stage. Dead Sara immediately got the audience's attention and kept it for their whole set. They opened up with a two song two member (reminiscent of the White Stripes) set, and finished with three more songs with a guest bassist and drummer (Their My Space page says bassist and drummer needed).

Performance, great! Nothing too fancy but these girls (Emily and Siouxsie) rock, are alive, and love music. It shows; Musicianship, great. Siouxsie rocks on both guitar and drums. Vocals: Excellent! Best vocals of the night. Great voice and man can that Emily scream! Creativity: Tops! Good mixture of songs and styles. Nothing boring, and they did different songs than they have on My Space. (Except for Innuendo which they played live). Audience rapport. Great! They were totally in sync with the crowd and afterwards I heard good comments coming out of everyone's mouths. Final Analysis: Keep your eyes on these girls. They are going places.

Third up: BILLY BOY on POISON. (Sorry guys can't find My Space profile on you). Interesting act. Probably a little on the bizarre side (lead singer in underwear and fishnet stocking type of bizarre), but interesting. Had a good size following there and like Dead Sara had the audience with them throughout their set. A good performance oriented act, with strong rockin' music, but a little weak (well actually a lot weak) on the vocals.

Performance: Great! (if you like things a little bizarre) Just plain bizarre if you don't like bizarre. Nonetheless, still a well coordinated stage show. Musicianship: Great! A very tight band, Rockin'music. Vocals: Terrible. Sorry but someone needs a few vocal lessons. Creativity: Decent mixture of songs and styles. Got a little boring after awhile (probably due to the singing more than anything else.) Audience rapport. Great. Seemed to have lots of fans there, and they liked them. Though, a lot of the non fans didn't have very many kind things to say. Final Analysis. Worth seeing to decide for yourself. If they are your kind of band, you'll probably like them. If they are not, you won't.

As for me, not exactly my kind of band. I like good vocals. So I got a little bored and walked out before Billy Boy on Poison finished. Didn't stay for the other bands.

(c)2007 Ron Powers

Author Resource: Ron Powers is a musician that likes to express his opinion. Additional information on this topic is at http://www.newsandreviews.info.

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