If you recall I just heard Jessica Lea Mayfield for the first time on Sirius XM and I really and truly liked her a lot. So naturally I immediately wrote a post and emailed her management hoping to score a interview with her at last nights show at the Rhythm Room. Since it was such short notice I did not get the interview but I DID get put on the guest list (being a famous blogger really has some good perks).
I showed up around 8pm with my good friend Ryan of Fungdark fame, procured beer and got ready for space, rock opera, old thyme local band What Laura Says. I must admit that I didn't listen to What Laura Says before the show because I thought their name sucked and they were going to be a crappy emo band. I am happy to report that they effing rocked my balls off...seriously I was totally not expecting them to be so good, well I wasn't expecting anything really but I was blown away. They are easily the best band coming out of Phoenix right now. I suggest you purchase their debut album Thinks and Feels.
So after grabbing another beer and a square we got ready to relax to the smooth sounds of Jessica Lea Mayfield but instead of smooth sounds we got a very unexpected "melt your fucking face off rock show" featuring Jessica, her giant bearded brother playing upright bass, the skinny cowboy whose name sounded vaguely Irish and a rocking chick drummer with a nice hat. If you have heard the album imagine it with Pink Floyd as her backing band. Her voice with the chorusie reverb guitar (that isn't on the actual album) creates an ethereal combination that gave me chills multiple times. I still love that time she gingerly climbed up on her brothers upright bass for a couple seconds...I still do love it ;-)
Then we get to the headliner the Annuals, after checking them out on Myspace last week Ryan and I had every intention of leaving before they played but since the first two bands were so good we though we would give them a chance live. Let me say that we were rewarded for our diligence. The 702 members of the Annuals (sans the keyboardists but especially the lead guitar player) look like a bunch of dorks that should have been playing World or Warcraft. And their drummer looks like a young Bob Seger but as they say "Don't judge a band by how retarded their haircuts and clothes are". The almost 2 hour long set contained a shit ton of awesome songs...some people might think that the vocals were a bit "emo" but those same people also like the Medic Droid so they can go fuck themselves and their 8 referring click throughs.
All in all it was the best combination of "3 bands I was not expecting to be so good that ended up being REALLY good" show I have ever seen.
Check out some shitty iPhone pics below, the official electricmustache photographer could not make it last night and the camera I took crapped out on me so I did my best with what I had!!!! Leave me alone!
