Rogue Wave with Grand Ole Party - live at The First Unitarian Church, 4/15

Rogue Wave photo by Jeff Beauman

Singing folk songs in an old church setting along with a fake campfire sing-a-long wasn't exactly what the crowd had in mind for a show last Tuesday night at The First Unitarian Church (Church of the R5, for those of you not in the know), but sure, we'll play along. Okay, so there was no 'Kumbaya.' But there was a fake campfire sing-a-long, we can tell you that much!

Grand Ole Party photo by Jeff Beauman

San Diego's swingin' Grand Ole Party rocked the opening of a hot set for Oakland, CA's Rogue Wave. Both artists were supporting eachother for new albums; Grand Ole Party on tour for their debut release on DH Records (label of Magnetic Morning) entitled Humanimals (which is nothing short of amazing), and Rogue Wave for Asleep At Heaven's Gate, a departure from the SubPop label and their previous releases (soft, melancholy, and maybe a little bittersweet) this is the band's 3rd album since the release of Out of the Shadow in '03, and 2005's Descended Like Vultures.

Grand Ole Party were playing their 2nd show ever in Philadelphia and as a trio; lead-singer Kristen Gundred on drums, guitarist John Paul Labno and Michael Krechnyak on bass, the band cut an interesting set-up across the stage, with Kristen taking lead in the middle front behind the drums, and fittingly, wearing a white shirt with silver sequins lining a fire pattern around her torso. Looking part 80s pop, part twenty's flapper era with her hair and microphone headset, but sounding like the second coming of Ann Wilson mixed with Jack White and Beth Ditto; girl can sure rock a stage behind that drumkit like no other on her headset microphone! Somewhere between a cat yowl, and a blues-tinged classic rock riff, Grand Ole Party stole our hearts and beat the stage black and blue with their distinct songs and Kristen's shoulder shimmy drum-rolls, at one point sounding like she was shouting over and over again, "HONEY, I AM FAME" and ending their set with the first track off their album, Look Out Young Son, the lyrics begin, "I must be the devil's daughter,"... feral rock, indeed.

Rogue Wave photo by Jeff Beauman

Rogue Wave continued  to move the standing room-only crowd at The Church with their incredible energy, mentioning their pre-taped appearance on Letterman earlier in the day. Playing ear-marked songs off of their two previous releases such as "California", "Bird On a Wire", "Love's Lost Guarantee" (a conversational segue into lead singer Zach Schwartz's-a.k.a. 'Rogue'-love of collecting hot sauce) and "Publish My Love", introduced by Zach as 'a sad one you know', along with newer tracks such as "Phonytown", ('This song is for all the haters. Someone recently told me that this was a song for Haters, and I had to re-think the song again and why I wrote it... I'm a rehab-Hater now'), and the jagged rhythm of "Like I Needed". Asleep At Heaven's Gate reflects on and marks some of the band's most heavy and amazing life experiences (probably to date). Taking it like champions, the group has bounded back onto their feet with the new release and seem to be taking everything in stride. It was only one year ago when Rogue Wave felt the loss of a band member (bassist Evan Farrell passed away near the end of December in an apartment fire due to smoke inhalation), the birth of a baby (Zach became a father to a baby girl), drummer Pat Spurgeon had to have a kidney transplant (the new album is dedicated to all of their friends who came together to hold a benefit concert for Pat), and adjustments were made for a new bassist--Patrick Abernethy (who is formerly of the band Beulah).


Rogue Wave with The Silver Ages photo by Jeff Beauman   

In some of the truest naked form performance we've yet to see, while asking the crowd to sit on the floor for their unexpected encore performance, members of Rogue Wave came off the stage to join the crowd with nothing to prove, but little to hold back. Joining them in a semi-circle 'just think of it like this being the campfire, and you gathering around us' were Philadelphia's own men's chorus group The Silver Ages, singing back-up to Rogue Wave songs as the band themselves circled the wagons around the The Silver Ages strumming three acoustics along to eachother while performing beautiful and heartbreaking renditions of "Chicago x 12" and "Christians In Black"--just two of the many wonderful highlights of the full encore they played on this evening. An emotional, and beautiful ending to a very memorable performance.

Click here for Girl About Town's online gallery of the show.

Rogue Wave - band site / myspace
Grand Ole Party - myspace

Comments

[b]

So I guess you don't want to talk about how the band dissed promoter Sean Agnew during the set in a completely immature fashion? I though it cast a pall over the show to hear trash talk from the performers

[carly]

Hi Brandy,

Thanks for commenting. I personally don't recall them dissing blatantly on Sean (whom we really like), I do remember them saying that they liked Johnny Brenda's and that they were happy to see just as many people there [at The Church] as at your venue. The review is simply a reflection on my experience that night, no more and no less--if I missed something as obtuse as you say, it's merely because I missed it and/or didn't hear it the way you heard it. I was crammed in the middle of the room sandwiched between more than a few people in the audience jotting down notes.

Carly

[Marc]

Zach did take a shot at the promoter, claiming the band was told they would be playing the actual church, rather than the basement. Ever since I saw the date, I figured something was up. To go from the Irving Plaza in New York to the Church was odd.

As for the show itself, Rogue Wave was brilliant. As a diehard fan, nothing could have pleased me more than to see one of my favorite bands in such an intimate setting. I was the one who requested "Love's Lost Guarantee", which started the whole hot sauce incident. It's always fun to have memories like that attached to a show. The next two times I'll see Rogue Wave will be opening spots with Death Cab for Cutie and Jack Johnson, and it'll be a shame that those two shows won't have the same feeling.