Repackaging My Inner Smartass

I wasn't the only one looking for some Monday night action.

The show at Sprout promised skygaze, shoegaze and shoewave, which was as good as a guarantee that I absolutely had to be there.

The surprise was how many other people were, too.

My main reason for going was Now Sleepyhead, a local ambient/shoegaze sounding band of whom I've been a fan for several years now.

The only problem is how rarely they play out.

You don't hear a lot of French horn in indie bands except with them and their combination of mournful lyrics over beautiful music sucks me in every time.

Introducing their last song, Michael said with a grin, "This is probably our happiest song and it's called 'Eternal Damnation."

They're also possibly the only band who claim to have pillowcases along with CDs among their merchandise.

During their set, a loud (drunk? poorly raised? oblivious?) girl right in the front began talking to her friend, getting ever-louder, trying to talk over the sound of an electrified band.

Of course I had no tolerance for her, but as I looked around, I saw steam coming out of several people's ears, so it wasn't just me being offended.

Just as I was about to do my civic/musical duty, a friend stepped up to her and took care of it.

She left in a huff with her girlfriend and later their male friend gave my friend a shove and a look of death.

I'm going to go with poorly raised.

Next up was Sleepy Vikings, a sextet all the way from Tampa ("It's even hot on Christmas in Tampa,") and one of those rare bands, a la Mermaid Skeletons, where everyone is seated.

Their shoegaze sound had moments of pure jangley folk pop, but it was the spacey electric guitar weaving its way through two acoustics that wormed its way into my ear and wouldn't let go.

I'm never one to argue with female vocals, and when a male voice took over, I heard shades of Modest Mouse.

The chill drumming (lots of brushes and mallets) also added a great deal to the overall sound, which benefited from frequent changes in tempo and dynamics.

Okay, so I really, really liked this band.

Humor came through when they mentioned that they had CDs for sale on a back table.

"It's a good time to steal one because no one's guarding them."

Finally we got to the rock portion of the evening, not that I was necessarily ready to let go of shoegaze, with Canary, oh, Canary.

A stripped down trio playing "shoewave" aka dream-gaze pop (think Cocteau Twins), they had some songs with no vocals and others with some dramatic ones (and expressive hand gestures). 


When they locked into a groove, they stayed there.


As I walked out, one of the musicians sitting outside asked if I was leaving. 


Yes, I explained, I was because the show was over.


I was accused of being a smartass, but as I pointed out, if I didn't pull out that card, he might suspect I'd been replaced with a body double.

And if that does happen, I want a much better body. Just FYI.