Well on Saturday I headed down to the House of Blues’ smaller room dubbed the ‘Pontiac Garage’ to partake of Raleigh, NC’s much lauded Annuals, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. I didn’t know much what to expect going into the show having only heard bits and pieces of albums and songs, and also having heard numerous comparisons to Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. I’m not sure that those comparisons would be the most apt, but this band is really like a chameleon, but in a good way, so it is kind of tough to really compare them to anything. But what I did decide is that whatever they are doing, they are doing it really damn well.

First up was Jessica Lee Mayfield, which consists of her, her brother on bass as well as the guitarist and drummer. She was pretty good, and I think I recognized a few of the songs, very catchy, chill stuff. She even whipped out a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Word of Love” in honor of Valentine’s Day, and it was an incredibly slow chill version of the song, but it worked pretty well. The one drawback is that the crowd in the back by the bar was pretty rude to Ms. Mayfield, making a shitload of noise talking/yelling/whatever to each other so that even where I was 15 feet from the stage it was noticeable and distracting and I saw several people around me turn their heads as well in response to the noise. The talking/chatting by the bar really ruined a few of the quieter songs, and I felt bad for Mayfield. If you ever wonder why Dallas crowds get a bad rep, that is why, stuff like that. You are at a concert, listen to the music or go home.

Anyway, she persevered over the crowd and delivered a solid set, and then Annuals came out with a bang, with red and green light triggers inside the dudes drums over a darkened stage, then they dove into their first song which totally killed. There were definitely a few ‘whoa’ moments as they tore through the opener (don’t know which song it was sorry), and it finished with a flurry I remember and it was awesome. I noticed they definitely have some more epic songs that really get some serious legs and kind of explode a little bit, which is a really cool thing. They tore through some more subdued songs interspersed with some more dramatic rock moments. Their sound, as I said above, is fairly difficult to describe as they kind of jump around many different genres, usually prog-rock, pop-rock, folk and blues and they all mesh together to create the various songs. Prog-rock is probably the most noticeable instrumental style for the band with some crazy intricate portions of the songs, notably with the guitarist. So you place some fierce instrumentation behind some very pop-sensible vocals and it creates a unique sound for sure. It isn’t really indie, it isn’t pop rock, it doesn’t really even qualify as prog-rock probably but that is the closest.

Anyway, the end result of all of these forces together is some thoroughly enjoyable songs. The band is having fun on stage and they have some songs that just tear the roof off for sure. “Brother” is one of the songs I did actually recognize during the show and it was 100% epic. It is up their barnburner song that really explodes off the stage and sounds incredible live. Very impressive stuff. They dropped a sweet two song encore on us at the end and bid us adieu to a damn good show.

Anyway, these guys are at the beginning stages of their current tour, and I would say they are definitely worth your time to check out. They put 100% into the show and they really bring great songs and great energy to the stage, with some truly epic prog-rock moments thrown in there that just work really well. And while the music itself may be a little hard to pigeon-hole into a certain genre, one thing is for sure that they make it work really well and put on a good show.

These are their current remaining tour dates:

2/17/09 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room
2/18/09 San Diego, CA – The Casbah
2/19/09 Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
2/21/09 San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
2/23/09 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
2/24/09 Vancouver, BC – Pit Pub
2/25/09 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
2/27/09 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
2/28/09 Denver, CO – Hi-Dive
3/02/09 Kansas City, MO – The Record Bar
3/03/09 St. Louis, MO – The Gargoyle
3/04/09 Newport, KY – South Gate House
3/06/09 Nashville, TN – Exit/IN
3/07/09 Atlanta, GA – The Earl

Annuals – Confessor – From Such Fun

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