Love Money at AS220
April 7th I headed out to Providence again, this time to AS220 on Empire street for the Love Money/Innocent Uprising show, and I’m certainly glad I dragged my ass out on a Tuesday night. While the room was sparsely populated with friends, relatives and girlfriends both bands made the best of the night playing their respective hearts out. I got there early enough to grab a burrito before the shows started and catch the extended sound check, longer than I’m used to at a smaller club but reaped the benefits as the mixing was perfect all night. Love Money laid out their classy blues jams with shout outs to the likes of Robert Johnson, changing pace a bit they played their instrumental reggae jam for some time before re-arranging some equipment and seating Lee on stage with an acoustic, they strummed out a great version of their Spanish flavored From Dusk Till Dawn. They even played a new one out The Moon, described as their first time playing it out, it sounded great and will sound even better on their forthcoming album. They closed out their set with “Please Go Away” or what I call FuckYou Bush, Lee and Kyle traded lead guitar licks for a good measure then let Stephen pound the skins, short on time Kevin didn’t take to a Bass solo, they wound down and started handing the stage over to Innocent Uprising, they timidly thanked everyone and asked how they sounded. I think they sounded great, so did the girls sitting next to me, one even had a crush on Kyle, until I called her a cradle robber. After her inquisitive stare and her friends whispering me to “call her a cougar,” I did so, I don’t think she liked me too much after that, proclaiming that she wasn’t old enough to be a cougar, I had to explain that he was younger than her more so than she was I.
Innocent Uprising at AS220
Innocent Uprising hit the stage molten, in such a small space the entire band didn’t quite fit on stage and Bobby took to the floor with his remote bass. Zig-Zag turned his kit sideways allowing Kyle, Travis and Sean more range on stage, also allowing him to use his drumstick as a sodomizing reminder when some band mates were soloing a little too loud. The sound really was unparalleled by other venues at which I’ve seen these guys play, as loud as Travis’s solos were, I could still hear and decipher every vocal Sean was belting out. They gave it their all and had AS220 jumping for a Tuesday night, they even had some of the artsy crowd put down their books in the bar and come outside to “have cigarettes” right outside the stage door (basically getting the show for free without going into the venue half of the club avoiding cover charge). A running theme in my blogs as the nights go on, and the alcohol consumed is increased exact details of set lists and solo segments may be lost in the haze. I do recall two newer songs in the furor of Innocent Uprising classics, one obviously in favor of the recent presidential change, as well as “Forget the Fire (Why O’ Why).” Kyle took lead vocals on one of the newer tracks, I believe it was the “Keep Our Gears in Drive”, quite an impressive showing on the first song I’ve heard by I.U. without Sean leading the vocals. All in all it was a great high energy Tuesday night, well worth me dragging my as from bed for the 10 minute drive.
