Young Doctors walked The City Streets with First Rate People to Rancho Relaxo

by Megan Oquias | 25th September 2010

September 16, 2010 — If you’ve never been to a show on the second floor of Rancho Relaxo, you’re missing out. Last Thursday The Indie Machine hosted a live music event that featured The City Streets, Young Doctors in Love, and First Rate People. The line-up had a little something for everyone, and even though it seemed as if each band brought their own entourages along, the audience came together nicely and proved that music is a universal language.

The term “Yin and Yang”, and even simpler “night and day” came to mind when watching the two frontmen of The City Streets. Their bassist was boisterous and somehow everywhere at once. Both this man’s energy and level of happiness mimicked that of a Muppet character. This clashed with the lead singer’s soulful crooner exterior, and almost took away from his smoldering, tormented performance. These boys were too large for this venue, and both figuratively and literally: their heads nearly touched the ceiling when onstage.

Third song in was a gentle rockabilly tune that showed that TCS could not be classified under one genre. Bass explored the octaves quite a bit, while guitar slid along simplistic riffs and finger picked broken chords to accompany excellent vocal harmonies. The depth of the stage seemed to disconnect the drummer from the rest of the band, resulting in it appearing to be two frontmen who happen to have a drummer. Regardless, drums were supportive to the sound; fills dominated with tom for rockabilly tunes and symbols accented lovers lament tracks.

Prior to heading to the show, I Myspaced Young Doctors in Love. Their songs were freaking catchy! 60’s rock style chord progressions that were tweaked by indie influence and progressive female vocals that sang lyrics that were conceptual and told a story. I know what you’re thinking: what’s not to like? I’m sad to say that I was a little disappointed by what they had to offer live.

Appearing awkward and uncomfortable the members of YDIL just seemed disconnected from each other which made it easy for me to disconnect from them. Admitting when mistakes were made, failed attempts at conducting topical banter , and a poor choice of stage arrangement; the keyboardist/back-up vocalist was front and center while the lead singer was put in the corner, making the set a little awkward to watch.

The songs were good; they just need to have a little more faith in what they’ve got and that in turn will reflect in their performance. It was evident that they were surer of themselves in certain songs, so maybe if they arranged the set a little differently, there may have been better flow and flaws would be less obvious.

Right off the bat the audience was told that First Rate People’s usual lead singer was not feeling well and wasn’t going to sing, and just play drums. To the rest of the chivalrous male members of the band this meant that they would have to distribute the vocal parts accordingly, however, after the first song, every other member of the band admitted that they were also sick. Sure, that makes them troopers, but this also led to a shorter set and a somewhat pushed performance.

There were some well thought out harmonic riffs, combined with experimental tempo changes and chord progressions which were executed nicely. While taking chances in music is a great way to find a unique sound, for FRP it created a slight inconsistency. But, there was a bit of a drum and bass alliance that seem to give the rest of the parts a leg to stand on.