Monday, June 27, 2005

My music review of the baby ABJ bands and Ludo.


(The Famed at The Granada)


Anything But Joey recently splint into two bands, Stuck on Broadway and The Famed. On Friday I went to the SOB/The Famed/Ludo show at the Granada. Since it was the first time that I saw any of these bands live, I will divulge what I thought about them.

The first band to play (besides Crowned King, I missed them) was Stuck on Broadway. They played pretty good, and they are sticking with the powerpop sound of Anything But Joey. They were fine, but a little bit lean on the amount of songs. This is understandable as I have heard that they were short a band member for awhile. I think that once they get rolling they will get pretty good, but at the moment I see some problems with them. First is that they are boring to watch. I know that I am at a show to watch them play music, but it is called a “show” for a reason. Secondly, they played a couple ABJ songs, which I think is the wrong thing to do. For one ABJ played the songs better and for two I think that SOB needs to separate themselves from ABJ. It was nice to hear the ABJ songs live again, but it just made me miss ABJ. All in all though I think Stuck on Broadway has got potential musically, I think that they just need to work on their showmanship some.

The next band to play was The Famed. Now everything that Stuck on Broadway did wrong The Famed did right. First is that they were fun to watch. They were very active on stage, and to some extent they moved around to show you what parts of the song to listen to. So when the guitar was the lead in the song the player was stepping up to be the lead visually. It helped me understand the songs much quicker since I had not heard many of them before the show. Also their strong presence, along with a different style of music, separated them from ABJ, I never felt like I was missing ABJ while watching them play, even though the lead singer is the same. I think that this will help establish them much quicker in the music scene.

Ok, now the things that I didn’t like about The Famed. First, although their intro was a good change from the norm, it was a bit long, and I swear that it is a ripped song from a movie, and not from an actual performance (I might just be crazy). Secondly, I do not dig their new look. I see why they went so radically different (again to distance themselves from ABJ), and in the end I think it will work for them, but seriously, the first thing that came to mind when I saw them all dressed in black was “poser”. Lastly, I think that they do not have as much potential with their music. What they have right now is good, but I think that SOB will be able to outshine them musically in a couple of years. But, as of right now, The Famed came out on top musically.

The last band to play was Ludo. Now I have listened to some of their music before and I was not that impressed by it. But since Amber liked them (I think that she has a good ear for music), I decided to try to put aside my preconceived notions from before and listen without bias. It turns out that they are very good live. I could see that they knew what they were doing on stage, especially compared to the new bands that played before them, and their music was very polished. I did enjoy their music, but what really shined with them was their new stuff. They played a couple of new songs that really rocked, and to me, showed that they are starting to really mature as a band musically. And, I have to say it, the song about the zombies rocked. Anyways, Ludo was a good band to end the night on as they really combined a good show with good music.

Overall Ludo was the best band at the show, but the other two bands look like they will be potentially as good or better. If the new songs that they played are an indication of where they are heading they may become one of my favorite bands.

To me it is obvious that The Famed will be successful. They know how to put on a good show, but I just feel that they really need another very good song to hold them out for the long run (it is possible that a re-work on a current song is all that is needed), but to me it sounded like their music was a bit shallow. I think that Stuck on Broadway has the most potential. Drew writes very good songs, but at the moment I think that they are missing a band member to lead the show. Either Drew needs to step up, or they need to add someone else, because there needs to be more “show” in their show. I think that if they can make it through a couple years of playing it small, they will work out a formula that will work live and be a very good band.

* pant, pant, pant*
Review over.

2 comments:

hockeyfrog said...

Just fyi, Groebe isn't the only one from the now defunct ABJ in The Famed.. Bryan, the lead guitarist, is as well. Just to clear that up. I can't vouch for the look change, but I know that Bryan changed looks to "fit the band" more... Groebe is kind of borderlining... he's wearing a black shirt and pants.. as opposed to a black shirt and jeans of the days of ABJ past. I told him he should get a tattoo or six, and some piercings, but he laughed at me. I still think that Bryan looks like Aaron's SWG character Ozix (I will have a side by side comparison tomorrow)

And the song that The Famed opens with is called "O Fortuna"... its obviously not theirs, and I believe it was written by Carl Orff. Famous Italian opera. The Avs used it during the... 2002-3 season (I think that was the year, I want to say it was the year of the big snow storm) when bringing the players onto the ice at the beginning of the games.


As far as SOB... They're better live than on MySpace. I'm not sure where you heard that they were missing a member for a long time, that was something I had never heard. Steve and Drew wanted to do something, they had JeffyP as drummer but he decided to focus more on school than music again... so they got Micah. But I never heard of any major gaps in musician employment. (The Famed didn't have Justin or Dave up until about a month and a half ago... but that was the only gap I knew of) Anyway though, SOB doesn't move around a lot because Drew never did. I was impressed by Micah's ability to get the crowd to sing/clap/whatever though.

Ludo is Ludo is Ludo. I don't really know what to say about these guys other than the fact they're troublemakers but so much fun :D

Ookami Snow said...

Two clarifications:
I know that the opening song is O Fortuna, but it sounds like it is from a movie scene and not the actual song, it may just be that i am used to hearing it one way and they have it from another recording.

The other is the drummer for SOB, I thought that he was the reason they got such a late start compared to The Famed. I donno, I could be wrong, I just that that was the deal.