Review!

So like other self-absorbed nerds, I constantly google "Steady Machete" to see if by chance someone is writing about us without our knowledge. Finally, today was that day when I found this review on The Local Landing:

Steady Machete
Sep 6th, 2008 by Mark Hardcore.

"This band is definitely worth writing home about. They had great stage presence and a unique Depeche Mode meets Against Me! sound. They also had a great interaction with the crowd, putting on a great stage show. And one of their songs, Adios, really stood out as a bouncy, memorable tune that you’ll want to listen to over and over again, with a fantastic sing-along chorus you won’t be able to get out of your head. Definitely worth the drive from Ogden!"

I'm not sure who this Mark Hardcore person is, but he's a champ in our book! Thanks Mark for the great review! It's actually the first real one we've had. "Real" meaning unsolicited and an actualy description of whether we're a good band or not.

Direct link here.

Sacamos "Plata"

Alrighty. After much anticipation, complaining, whining, judging, and general feelings of self entitlement, we finally played the Battle of The Bands for the X96 Big Ass Show last night. Four bands competed in the September 4th battle:

Mutton Hollow: Somewhat of a cross between Metallica and Thursday. Pretty talented dudes, especially the drummer. Our main critique would be that (and this just comes from being in that genre) it sounded like they played one 30-minute song. Not a lot of changes.

Self Expression Music: This was embarassing. These clowns were comprised of no less than 10 different members--one of which was a pregnant girl--all taking turns rapping about their shitty Salt Lake white-boy/white-trash lives. That's right, rap. Hip hop. I appreciate X96 wanting to add "diversity" to the competition, however this was too far. They had zero chance of winning, and if they did, how would that play out on the main stage? They would be boo-ed off the grounds. So it was a complete waste to have these guys on the bill.

Larusso: The winners. Really nice guys, we have to admit that and thank them for telling people to stick around for us and introducing themselves to us after the show. With that being said, they were quite boring. Sounded like a mediocre version of every fourth generation Emo-Punk trendy band on the radio. Think Fall Out Boy without any of the catchy hooks and much less powerful vocals. And we are NOT fans of FOB. They won, however, by over 100 votes. Now you might think that they must have proved themselves with such a landslide decision. But don't forget, this competition was based off of balots at the show (i.e.friends the bands brought) and mainly, text messages. No judging on talent whatsoever. If that had been the case, I think Mutton Hollow would have beat out Larusso.

We came in 2nd. This is perfectly acceptable, if not, exciting for us since it means that we are now guaranteed a spot to play at the Big Ass Show--albeit on the local stage. We really cannot complain. Had this been a judged competition, we would have stronger feelings, but how can you hate on a band for winning when it only was based on their friend base? It's not our fault or theirs that they have more friends. I will say that the most satisfying outcome was that some of Larusso's fans came up to us afterwards and confessed they cast one of their two votes for us. Ha!

It feels good to get this all behind us. We would have really liked to win at least last night's competition so we could open up for the Real Salt Lake soccer game, but just the chance to play at a festival is a big boost.