Saturday, August 11, 2012

Other Lives

Every so often, I check out concerts that fall outside of my usual boundaries of heavy metal. 

This time, I decided to check out the band Other Lives, an Oklahoma group where the prerequisite for joining seems to be the ability to play no less than three instruments on stage simultaneously.

This prerequisite seemed to extend to the opening duo, Cate's Leila, to some extent.

Other Lives was quite ok, even though I typically don't go for this kind of music.  It was pretty interesting to see them really work it on stage with so many instruments, looking sometimes like a stressed out skeleton crew with a deadline only a short time away.

How to describe them?  "Southern Rock" does them a disservice, as the music is more dense than that, perhaps at times being a southern rock version of progressive metal with many atmospheric elements thrown in.  They describe themselves as "alternative" on Facebook, which also does them a disservice.

They surprised me, actually.  Not my style, but fairly enjoyable, nonetheless.  I had a distinct feeling that the hipster portion of the crowd that predominated couldn't care less about the band (evidenced by the extremely loud chatter audible even during the show and their circles within a nicely filled venue), which is somewhat unfortunate.

If they play nearby, check them out.  They might surprise you.  At the least, you likely won't hate them.

Photography is a mixed bag; so much is interesting during the show, but the stages are so packed with equipment, that getting everyone is impossible.

Opening duo (Cate's Leila, from Hamburg):

 





Other Lives: