The election is over and the local rock has returned!
My weekend started a little earlier than most because this date was the second in what promises to be a great series of off-season shows at the Steer Inn over in Ocean Pines called “Three for Free.” Naturally local rock patron Skip Dixxon has a hand in putting this together, so each Thursday night there’s three good local musicians or bands getting an opportunity to play for the people – and you can’t beat the price. This most recent Thursday brought a great bill of veteran and rookie acts: solo guitarist Nate Clendenin, the debut of a new band called Of You, and my good friends from Semiblind rounding things out.
This will be a fairly short teaser post here; more pictures and text are up on the monoblogue Myspace site. (If the link doesn’t work, just click on the blog. You can check out the much-expanded musical selections there too, all from local or regional acts.)
Let’s begin with Nate Clendenin, who did this show as an acoustic solo act.
It appears from the three scheduled so far that the ‘Three for Free’ shows will begin with an acoustic act. In this case Nate did a mix of originals and covers; most pleasing to the audience was the older Grateful Dead song he made over.
Next up were the youngsters in Of You. They’re a four-piece band, with the singer doubling as a guitarist.
This was their debut show, so naturally they weren’t perfect. But I thought they passed the audition with flying colors, playing a number of fairly recent covers. They even had a little assistance from the host on one song.
Of You brought a lot of energy to the stage, and turned out to be a fine warmup for my good friends from up Millsboro way.
As is often the case, they played mostly cover songs but did toss in a trio of originals out of the ten or so they performed, including a more uptempo version of one of my favorites, “Ocean Meets The Sky.”
There’s more pics of all three bands on the monoblogue Myspace page, which I’ll do shortly after this post. Tomorrow I’m back to my usual political commentary and news again, but don’t be surprised to find a number of WLR volumes over the next few months as the local music scene percolates through the winter. The date for Skip’s “12 Bands of Christmas” has already been announced (Saturday, December 27th) and I already know that Semiblind will be in the house! And so will (among others) Lower Class Citizens, Skitzo Calypso, and lower case blues. Should be a damn fine show.
Closer on the horizon is a Battle of the Bands sponsored in large part by the gang at Delmarvanightlife.com next weekend at Brew River…just might have to stop by and check that out too. It should be a great week for music since the Staind/Seether/Papa Roach show is Wednesday night.
