Hit up the ole Granada for Surfer Blood, who were in the midst of the tour and on their way to SXSW, where it appears they are playing like 25 shows in 4 days. Anyway, these fine young lads out of Florida have a cool sound and are drawing some serious attention, and I think from the show you could certainly see the potential and promise these guys have and they did a good job playing to a fairly subdued Monday night crowd.
Turbo Fruits were up first and they delivered some frenetic and energetic good ole fashioned riff-y garage rock to the peeps. They had some pretty good rock outs in their set, and their closing song was solid, rife with riffs(don’t know the name).
They hit basically every song off of their new album Astro Coast, mostly all of which are extremely catchy and have great hooks and melodies to tickle the eardrums one way or another. Some of the songs translated better into the live setting than others, and they did have a few extended takes in certain songs that worked really well. The energy of the band was good, but the Granada was in its small show set up so the huge room only really had people in the front, so the energy maybe didn’t quite get to the level it could have. There were also numerous sound problems early in the set with the bass rig that kept popping in and out, and it seemed like the fuzz pedal guitar was not mixed/hooked up properly as well, though aside from technical issues they were otherwise great.
They have some good energy on stage, definitely are having fun with it and not taking themselves too seriously (good), and they hit the overdrive and rock some of these jams out for sure. Highlights were of course “Swim” (great song, and best of the night I thought) and “Fast Jabroni”. They have some insanely catchy stuff, so it all worked pretty well. A lot of comparisons/notes have been drawn between the band and classic Weezer in the blogosphere, which I’m not sure I totally agree with based on the album, but they played right into this hand by teasing a soundcheck before the show with “The Sweater Song”, and then bringing it out in full fashion on the encore. Everyone was singing along so it pretty much worked. They also dropped a new jam in the encore that was good, a little slower, more developed, a good song but a tough one to close with perhaps.
They have some killer songs and put on a pretty great show on Monday night, and I think that most people who can catch them at SXSW will probably not be disappointed with their catchy songs and fuzzed out rock outs. I think in a more intimate venue or with a bigger crowd this would have killed, but its tough in a gigantic, half-used theater to get the full energy working. Despite that and the sound problems though, really impressed with these guys, and hope to see them again down the line here. The album is also top notch, so if you haven’t checked that out, get on it as well.
Surfer Blood – Swim – From Astro Coast
Surfer Blood – Fast Jabroni – From Astro Coast
