07 Oct 11

Hey, blogspot readers, it's another star-studded, action packed adventure around town for SouthSide! From Friday to Sunday, your fearless local reviewr was rockin' and partying at two major venues while covering the hottest touring acts to hit their stages. On Saturday, she'll be at The Abbey Pub to see her friends Papadosio (OH) again and on Sunday, it'll be Swallows (MN) for their debut at Elbo Room. However, tonight, she's rockin' Elbo Room to see two of LA's rising metal acts currently on tour - Clandestine and Spineshank.

Though missing part of Clandestine's performance, this reviewer recommends checking out the temptress of the siren-like melodic voice and the band of hardcore guitar metal rock. She enjoyed the interesting yet unique mesh of this style of female vocals immersed within this dark and intense genre. Despite noticing female singer, June, had to scream sometimes to be heard, her voice did pack a solid punk to which many felt her pain and frustration while banging their heads to the raw sound. Clandestine certainly presented its audience a powerfully emotional ...very dark with such fierce intensity type of rock show, blogspot readers, until the last guitar riff slowly died into eternity. For more information about this band, visit http://www.clandestineband.com.

It may have been years since this band had rocked a Chicago stage but they definitely rocked the Elbo Room stage like a young twentysomthing metal band. And if the stage was a little bit larger and wider, they would have definitely tore it down to the ground. Long time rockers, Spineshank, returned to the stage - first time in years - giving their diehard fans a headlining show they'll never forget. This metal Grammy-nominated band and its dynamic leader, Jonny, had head's banging to the intense guitar riffs and animalistic screamo/raspy falsetto vocals as well as to a hardcore metal rock sound that made the blood boil with excitement. This band literally knocked the wind out of SouthSide, blogspot readers, throughout their intense performance. With the aid of digitalized playback, certain Spineshank songs and its metal sound were enhanced to add more depth and emotions as heard in Asthmatic and Beginning of the End. Both songs were excellent examples of one's emotions powerfully poured into the lyrics by Jonny especially during Beginning of the End. You were meade to feel the angered sentiments behind the words ...no just listen to them. This performance also featured new songs off Spineshank's upcoming album - Anger, Denial, Acceptance (to be released soon) such as Murder Suicide (fierce animalistic within a raw tone in which the metal-tastic music matched note for note) and single Nothing Left For Me (not as intense or hardcore as the other new songs but full of energy and Jonny's emotional falsetto style pops the song with lots of head banging momentum). SouthSide suggests immersing the ears into the heavy intensity of Spineshank's other new song - Damage in which she literally felt the hardcore guitar riffs. While regaling the fans with classic Spineshank tunes like Detached and Dead to Me, Spineshank wowed this reviewer with their version of George Harrison's classic - While My Guitar Gently Weeps. She has heard other versions that try to imitate the original Beatles tune however this band up the stakes by turning it into the darkest hardcore metal ballad ever with such vocal intensity and emotion. The guitars were certainly weeping within that metal sound, blogspot readers. Before closing with HOC, Spineshank promised its fans that this performance was simply the beginning of a new era ...starting with this tour. For more tour details, music and information about this band, visit http://www.myspace.com/spineshankmusic or http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/Spineshank.

sidenote: SouthSide also highly recommends rockin' while singing along with her friends, A Thousand Julys. This local group once again entertained the upstairs audience at Elbo Room's acoustic lounge with their lively cover renditions of popular songs like Michael Jackson's Rock With You and Cee Lo Green's Fuck You (which is always a fan highlight during their performances). SouthSide promises to do a full review on A Thousand Julys soon but in the meantime, visit http://www.facebook.com/athousandjulys for more information about them.


Until next time, support your local scene,
SouthSide