the Backstabbers, Damelo & Stars Upon Thars

Forget getting your sweat on at some $30 a month health club, just come down to The Blue Room any night in August when there's live music on the bill and I guarantee a workout will ensue while you are just standing there. It's hot in there, but don't start whining about it. Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be a participatory experience and this past Monday things were hotter than usual.
Stars Upon Thars opened the show with potential, starting things off with their multi-singer and five-piece, playing a blend of what some would refer to as emo-punk. I am at a loss as to what exactly "emo" is anymore and I was hoping this show would shed some light on it, but I am still perplexed. This band is young and still seems to be just cutting their eyeteeth playing live shows, but their vigor and delivery is top notch. Entertaining and energetic, they had the whole crowd dripping sweat by the time they left the stage.
The next three-piece, Damelo, played a different tune, ranging from more straightforward punk rock to melodic emo (there's that word again) with cool, percussive math rock overtones — these guys are sounding tighter and tighter every time I see them.
By the time The Backstabbers hit the stage, a haze hung in the air from pure sweat and Blue Room energy. Frontman Willie (looking and moving a bit like a younger, less junkie-prone Iggy Pop) belted out the vocals while the rest of the five-piece shook the stage with their muted rock fury. Next, the five piece allowed for a bigger sound by utilizing their two guitarists and freeing up their lead axe to fill in the palette behind the low end and lyrics. Of course, with this added musician in the sonic spectrum it squeezed the vocals a bit out of the mix, but the vocalist still held in there. Chasing their pedals around while the stage bore their weight like Atlas, the guitars and bass in this band meshed well with each other. The whole scene reminded me, and it could have just been the funky aroma in the air, of when you'd see a live show at any hole in the wall venue any night of the week because you knew there would be some kind of spectacle. The rock would be there…and at the Blue Room on Monday, the rock came from The Backstabbers who looked you in the face and didn't let anybody down.

– M. Cameron Newell
– photos by Alyssa Starkey

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