Weekend of local rock volume 7

No, it’s not this weekend but last weekend. I’ve had such a busy week that I hadn’t made time to put in this post. It’s a “fun” post for a Saturday as opposed to the heavy politics I had all this week.

The particular weekend in question was my birthday weekend (the odometer flipped last Saturday.) So my goal was to see bands on both Friday and Saturday nights. Originally I was going to do the same combo as my last “weekend of local rock” post but plans changed so it turned out I got to see one new band to me, one band I hadn’t seen in awhile, and a double dose of my friends from Semiblind.

It started Friday night up in Seaford at Coyote’s. That was dose number 1 of Semiblind, who sounded great but didn’t have a lot of folks to play to – quite a shame. They only got in a couple of their originals because of that; and while they do justice to a whole range of cover songs I really dig their original stuff. Of course I had my camera Friday night.

The band Semiblind rocking Coyote's back on September 21.

Of course, sitting right up front gave me a chance to capture each of the band members too.

Jim singing and playing his guitar.

Asher churning out the bass notes.

Lynn hammering on his drums. It's hard to get his pic in the back.

Of course, Michelle's up front singing her stuff.

You can catch these guys almost every weekend someplace in Delaware, personally I try to see them when they play in the Seaford area. They’re talented musicians and nice folks as well.

I had planned on sticking around Salisbury to catch Crossroads on Saturday night but the show fell through. Previous to that, I had become aware that Lennex was making a return appearance to their OC stomping grounds as a benefit for the Coastal Bays Program. I didn’t figure out until Friday that it was an all-ages show at Seacrets, thus it was an early evening affair. So I had a brainstorm about doing a fun twofer. It started at Seacrets with two bands, Hot Box and Lennex. (I didn’t get there in time to catch a third area band, Loud Love.)

Hot Box is a group that has a funky sound with a hint of jazz to go with their straight-ahead rock. The Baltimore-area group does come down here quite a bit, next time they’re in the area will be the second weekend of October. I got a couple pictures of them at work, dig the bongo player on the right.

They sing about pretty in pink in the song 'Play On Playa' but look good in blue light.

And a shot from the other side. That wasn't my drink in the shot.

Because it was a benefit show, all three bands were playing for free. But Lennex brought its merch table. I picked up a couple CD’s for my collection and a sticker for my experience board. Forgot to get one for my car though!

A well-stocked merch table - obviously Lennex tries to keep its name out there.

Since they were the main attraction, they drew the better crowd up front. But I still got in a couple decent photos.

Yeah, there were a lot of folks enjoying Phil Ritchie and the band.

I got this picture pretty early on, it was likely my best - certainly blogworthy.

While I don’t have the exact amount, I’m guessing there were maybe 300-400 people in Seacrets, and at $20 a pop plus doing 50/50 drawings, the Coastal Bays folks had to make 5 figures easily from this fundraiser. Lennex is also going to hang around for awhile and they’re well worth checking out too. You never know, they could be the next big thing.

Because the Seacrets show ended about 9:00, this gave me an opportunity to see Semiblind again near their hometown of Millsboro, over in Long Neck, Delaware. They play the Sandbar Tavern there quite a bit and the folks were more plentiful and spirited. I got good birthday wishes from them that night as well. Overall, it made for a pretty good day into night. (I was merciful with Semiblind, figured I had enough pix from the night before.)

So ended another weekend of local rock. It’s the time of year when summer is winding down and the local bands look for places to play and people to appreciate them, so get out tonight or next weekend and support your local music scene!

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.