Velour Battle of the Bands Night ONE

Velour's Battle of the Bands is this week. Unfortunately, I missed last night's show. Luckily I received an e-mail from one Eliot Rosewater. Eliot, your review isn't nearly pretentious enough for this blog, but it's still a good one:

2010 Velour Winter Battle of the Bands was began in style with four of the finest bands in Utah County battling it out for dominance.

1.  The Crylics

The Crylics kicked off the competition with their brand of spiky synth-punk. They played a tight, energy filled set.  They played a handful of hook filled songs and finished up with an anthemic tune called Empires of Love.  I could tell that they really enjoyed playing their music.  I think that’s what I like most about them.  The rhythm guitar player was dancing like a broken  robot the whole time.  It was brilliant.

2.  Father Time

If you’re familiar with the seminal Provo legends known as Return to Sender, then you know 66% of Father Time.  Chad Reynolds and Scott Miller are back to reclaim the scene they captivated during their high school years.  Father Time’s performance at Battle of the Bands was loud, moving, and emotional.  Smoke machine fog and the purple-red glow of Velour shrouded the trio as they submitted their musical manifesto.  Chad Reynolds spit out words of acid over jagged guitar lines.  The drummer, Scott Miller, played with admirable speed and accuracy.  Although the overall sound of the band was reminiscent of Return to Sender, it was definitely apparent that this definitely is a different band.  

3.  Prince of Whales

I love these guys.  They’ve only been around for a few months but as soon as this six piece super-folk band got on stage, I knew I was in for a treat. Singer-guitarist Scott Dastrup opened up the set by notifying us that the first tune would be a lullaby and that the audience should prepare themselves accordingly.  This announcement was followed by one of the most beautiful and original songs I’ve heard in a long time.  The rest of the set, although short, was equally tremendous.

4.  90s Television

Finally, a band in Provo for the fans of modern psychedelic rock.  This is the band I came to see.  90s Television came armed with a wah-wah pedal and a glowing  Nintendo 64 sign.  Josh Brown sang through a BOSS sampler which gave his vocals an interesting echoing tone.  They played a set jam packed with danceable hits that evoked memories of a better time - The 90’s.

In my opinion, any of the bands that played could have emerged victorious, but there was only one…

The Winner of Monday night’s winner is Prince of Whales.  They are very deserving of the title and I can’t wait to see them again on Saturday. 

An award should also be given to the Velour sound guy, Nate Pyfer.  He does a fabulous job.

Thanks Eliot for helping out this humble blog! Tomorrow I'll write a review of tonight's show which was fabulous even if we didn't win.

Rock & Roll is alive at the Compound

Hidden in downtown Provo, tucked away down a long driveway, a passerby might hear the sound of a small crowd. As they get closer, the smell of cigarettes and sweat grows stronger. A van sits outside a small house where people unload instruments into the living room. Everyone is chatting cheerfully, excited to see one another and enjoy music together. A few hold cans of beer or bottles of vodka, a rare sight in Utah County. A vase sits on a table by the entrance where people can put in however much money they want as payment, but generally it should be $3 or more to help the touring band. This place feels like it was lifted from some other city.

This is the Compound.


It's just a small house where a couple guys named Joey and Bryan live. Joey books the shows and Bryan draws the flyers. The flyers give off a very late 80s/early 90s feel, recalling the animation of Beavis & Butthead or the more recent Superjail. You already know what kind of show you're in for the second you see one of Bryan's drawings. Dozens of them are on the walls of the living room - a history of Provo rock shows.

Tonight, I finally had the opportunity of going to a show there. I first heard about it a few months ago from SLFM's Jessica Davis and have been wanting to attend a show there since. Tonight the bands were Baby Ghosts, Burnt Reynolds & His Hot Bones, the Broken Spells (Joey's band), and King Louie's Missing Monuments from New Orleans. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it for the beginning of the show and missed the first two bands. But I managed to catch Broken Spells and Missing Monuments. It was an experience.

The energy at the Compound tonight was something I've never seen at Velour or Muse. Everyone was crowded together, standing attentively. The bands played at one edge of the living room with the kitchen as a backdrop (a sharp contrast to the curtains and stained glass windows at Velour or the brick painting of the Clash's London Calling at Muse). Both bands I saw played pretty straight foward 80's punk rock, reminiscent of the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, and Dinosaur Jr. There was yelling. There were guitar solos.

And there was moshing.

Moshpits are a rarity here in P-town. I think I've maybe seen one at Muse and then sort of half a mosh pit at Velour one time. But at the Compound, a venue for everyone else, people actually move to the music. People celebrate. There's nothing boring about it. The majority of the time everyone just looks so BORED at shows, sitting down and lazily listening to the band. But not at the Compound. The band and the audience are together, yelling and dancing and moving and playing rock and roll the way it should be played. Pretensions are thrown out the window. It's just... fun.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Muse and Velour, despite what you may think. Lots of great bands play on University Ave. They help expose people to local musicians in a way no one else can. They give musicians an opportunity to showcase their songs to friends and strangers. They have a wide variety of styles playing, but mostly safer indie folk rock (Provo's favorite music). The Compound is pretty concentrated on garage/punk, as far as I can tell. It doesn't have shows nearly as often and isn't in any kind of competition with Provo's venues.What makes it so necessary is that it can be very hard to see those kinds of bands play at Velour/Muse. And even if they did, few people would get it and even fewer would actually dance to it. (A punk show is happening at Muse on Dec 17, but I'll be convincing you to go the next night.)

I encourage you, if you're into Rock & Roll, real Rock & Roll, to add The Compound on Facebook to get updates about when they next have shows, and I'll do my best to keep everyone updated on here too. I know that I'll be going back every chance I get.

m. lewis barker