Japanic, Damelo & Robots Hate Cowboys

In the beginning there were three bands, all varied in style. Robots Hate Cowboys (Candice Armenta & Andy Cose) a local drum and bass duo. Damelo (Brian Brophy, Dan Burns & Daniel Taylor) a local lyrically rocking trio and the one unknown to me, the one they call Japanic (Tex Kerschen, Margeaux, Rob Nephi Smith, Josh Berry, Steven Burnett and Brandon Davis), a rock extravaganza to break the wave. I knew this would be a good show, but I did wonder how it would all connect.
Robots Hate Cowboys are a high-powered, but not overly enthusiastic, elitist rock tribe. Both Armenta (drums) and Cose (bass) are well versed in their trade and are continually getting better. I have seen this band play off and on for the past year or so at shows and otherwise and I have to say that they have come far, and have done so together. They are a definite team and are highly unbreakable. The show proved to be an example of this mutual growth, both in their skill and in the length of their set list. Although you could not see the placement of Cose's fingers on his bass because he was turned away from the crowd, you could hear it and it was good. And although you could not exactly count how many kicks of Armenta's kick drum were beat, you could feel it and it was right.
Put the foot down and play it the way it ought to be played. Damelo is pretty good at getting this done. With contrasting vocal tones and top-level rock songs the overall effect is strikingly strong. The drums bounced around from the Senator balcony on down through the building and back again. Alternating lyrics between Burns (bass / vocals) and Brophy (guitar / vocals) added a few more layers to the mix and paralleled with their guitar and bass work, while Taylor (drums) kept everything in time.
If anyone had expected Japanic to be all that it is the place would have been packed-and oh it should have been because these guys were ready to rock out. A six-piece from Houston, Texas with rock 'n' roll on the brain and in the soul - a thing that I can only describe as audio provocative. Front man Kerschen had the dance and snare of Ian Svenonious of the Make-Up, and made you feel as if all your clothes might just up and disappear leaving you helpless to the pleas of the music. Nephi-Smith (keys) gave us a lesson in the ways of soulful knob twiddling and Margeaux (vocals / keys) might as well have been hovering above us all like the angel that her voice embodies. This band is a pirate ship, a gaggle of sorts, that is both visually massive and auditorally seductive, and there is only one-way to end it: walk the plank.
- Haley Hughes
- Photo by Alyssa Starkey

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