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I drove back from Connecticut to catch the Fluttr Effect show at the Middle East on Saturday night, and honestly, it was worth it. After some parking issues, we finally just left the car in Dann's driveway and walked over, arriving around maybe 10:30pm. We waited in line for a few minutes (it was crowded!), and as soon as we got inside we saw Heather. She was looking cute in a sexy skirt. She introduced us to Jason and we said hi to Vess, who we'd met briefly before. Dann arrived a few minutes after we did even though we walked over together because he had had to stop at the ATM. Courtney was also in attendance, and she looked hellacute too. I hate it when I go to see bands that attract gothy crowds because I never know ahead of time that that will be the case and I just show up in a t shirt when I could've worn something cute. Oh well.
After all the hihowareyous we all stood around and didn't really pay attention to the band that was on then, something like Seven Sunless Days. They weren't great--mostly sounded like a poor Evanescence knockoff. (We missed the first band, but no one really seemed to care.) The second band, Cabiria, was definitely better, but still nothing spectacular, which made me feel bad since this was technically their cd release party and most of the crowd I think was there to see them. The singer had a nice voice and all, and in the louder sections she sounded excellent, really good, but she didn't seem to know how to channel that intensity into the quiet moments in their songs, so at those times she sounded whispery and soft. Not intentionally whispery and soft, more like "untrained high school soprano choirgirl" soft. The band definitely had potential, but I didn't think they were there yet. Mostly I was glad I'd found a seat, since I can never make it through shows when I have to stand the whole time.
I don't remember what time Fluttr went on, but we worked our way to the very front, which was pretty cool. I liked their music a lot, but realized right at the very end of the show that they sounded much, much better in the back of the room than they did in the front. This was a real shame, because a big part of their show is visual, since their singer is so dramatic. Where we were standing, we could see great, but we could hardly hear Vess's (vibes? marimba?) or the singer at all. When we were getting ready to leave, we could hear them beautifully from the back of the room. Oh well, I'll have to get a cd in order to really hear them properly.
Here's some pictures I took at the show. One good thing about where we were standing was that I did have an excellent view for picture-taking, though there were official-looking guys with cameras in front of me so I was constantly leaning around them and trying not to get in their way. I was also experimenting with my flash options at this show, so that's why some of the pictures look blurry or trippy. I'm having issues finding the best flash option to use at shows like this: just leaving it on autoflash tends to take excellent shots of the head of the guy in front of me, while turning the flash off completely makes for very blurry pictures, and the Nighttime option seems to be kind of in between but still blurrier than I would like.
Here's the singer. She spent the last few minutes before they went on laying on the floor next to her mic stand, apparently getting into character. Once she was ready to go, she was totally animated and writhing all over.
I tried so hard to get a good picture of Vess, but she just moved too damn fast for my camera! This was the one that turned out the best.
Here's Troy, rocking out. This picture turned out pretty good, I thought.
The singer again, and you can see Jason on drums in the background.
The cellist (is her name Valerie? She makes good truffles!). I had issues getting a good shot of her too, because she was lit from the wrong side and always had a big shadow from her mic across her face. I liked watching her play, though, because she always looked so happy.
Here's another shot of Troy, blurrier this time.
A very trippy, weird shot of center stage. I like the pink lighting and the fact that you can still make out the Fluttr graphic on the bass drum.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show, and I'd go see them again (only I'd stand in the back this time to hear them better).
After all the hihowareyous we all stood around and didn't really pay attention to the band that was on then, something like Seven Sunless Days. They weren't great--mostly sounded like a poor Evanescence knockoff. (We missed the first band, but no one really seemed to care.) The second band, Cabiria, was definitely better, but still nothing spectacular, which made me feel bad since this was technically their cd release party and most of the crowd I think was there to see them. The singer had a nice voice and all, and in the louder sections she sounded excellent, really good, but she didn't seem to know how to channel that intensity into the quiet moments in their songs, so at those times she sounded whispery and soft. Not intentionally whispery and soft, more like "untrained high school soprano choirgirl" soft. The band definitely had potential, but I didn't think they were there yet. Mostly I was glad I'd found a seat, since I can never make it through shows when I have to stand the whole time.
I don't remember what time Fluttr went on, but we worked our way to the very front, which was pretty cool. I liked their music a lot, but realized right at the very end of the show that they sounded much, much better in the back of the room than they did in the front. This was a real shame, because a big part of their show is visual, since their singer is so dramatic. Where we were standing, we could see great, but we could hardly hear Vess's (vibes? marimba?) or the singer at all. When we were getting ready to leave, we could hear them beautifully from the back of the room. Oh well, I'll have to get a cd in order to really hear them properly.
Here's some pictures I took at the show. One good thing about where we were standing was that I did have an excellent view for picture-taking, though there were official-looking guys with cameras in front of me so I was constantly leaning around them and trying not to get in their way. I was also experimenting with my flash options at this show, so that's why some of the pictures look blurry or trippy. I'm having issues finding the best flash option to use at shows like this: just leaving it on autoflash tends to take excellent shots of the head of the guy in front of me, while turning the flash off completely makes for very blurry pictures, and the Nighttime option seems to be kind of in between but still blurrier than I would like.
Here's the singer. She spent the last few minutes before they went on laying on the floor next to her mic stand, apparently getting into character. Once she was ready to go, she was totally animated and writhing all over.
I tried so hard to get a good picture of Vess, but she just moved too damn fast for my camera! This was the one that turned out the best.
Here's Troy, rocking out. This picture turned out pretty good, I thought.
The singer again, and you can see Jason on drums in the background.
The cellist (is her name Valerie? She makes good truffles!). I had issues getting a good shot of her too, because she was lit from the wrong side and always had a big shadow from her mic across her face. I liked watching her play, though, because she always looked so happy.
Here's another shot of Troy, blurrier this time.
A very trippy, weird shot of center stage. I like the pink lighting and the fact that you can still make out the Fluttr graphic on the bass drum.
Overall, I really enjoyed the show, and I'd go see them again (only I'd stand in the back this time to hear them better).
