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David Vandervelde et al, Rhinos, 6.7.2006

Thursday, June 8, 2006

Rhino’s is the only all-ages music venue in Bloomington, thus attracting as many regional teenage ska and indie punk bands as it does national bands with more established names. I went there last night for the first time since my junior year of high school, when I saw my friends the Vibrating Velvet-tones and (at the time) major local goof-punks Sloppy Seconds perform loudly and semi-coherently. It was interesting, after so long, seeing the demographic slice of people at Rhino’s—everyone from well-dressed high school kids to kinda smelly/hairy townie/hipster types—a much wider array than one usually catches at a local show in Bloomington. Most of the kids were there to see Matt Pond PA and his generic brand of moody-yet-spirited breezy and pretentious indie pop for the Abercrombie set, and he came on last and bitched about the sound system for a while and his cello player just fucking glared at everything. We split after the second song, but the crowd was having a really good time.

I was there on a tip to check out David Vandervelde and the Moon Station House Band (above), who I was told sounded like T. Rex, which, as anyone who knows me is aware, will make me check out just about anyone, for reasons of which I’m not quite sure. The band was big–three guitarists (counting Vandervelde) a keyboardist/hand percussionist, bassist who looked like Benecio del Toro in Fear and Loathing and, best of all, a drummer who looked like he wandered in from the set of Breaking Away. And they sounded a lot like T. Rex, but also a little like Badfinger and the Brian Jonestown Massacre (Vandervelde actually sort of looks like Anton Newcombe), all of which is great. And I had to go up to him after the set to make sure that I heard him correctly at the beginning, when I thought I heard him say that this was their first show ever. I was pretty sure he meant “in Bloomington,” but Vandervelde affirmed my suspicion—that I saw a band’s first show ever, a band ready to be signed to a rather prominent indie label that I won’t mention because I don’t want to queer the deal or anything. Turns out Vandervelde has been writing and recording and etc. for a few years, and that’s what’s going to be represented on the first album. And for a band playing out for the first time, they sounded amazing—there were some acoustic problems (mostly with the vocals), sure, but it’s clear that the band has a clear vision of what they want to do and how they want to do it. By the way, they covered “Portrait of Louise” from the oft-overlooked 1972 Bee Gees record 2 Years On, and blew the shit apart. If I get the okay, I’ll post an mp3 demo I have, but until then, dig the myspace.

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