I rarely go to shows in Denver these days. There are two primary reasons for this. [1] I blow my load @SXSW every year in March. And [2], the music scene pretty much sucks in Denver. There, I said it. Maybe it's because I'm so elitist from my 3x's a week, NYC, cheap or free show-going days. But, I also knew that when I moved to CO for climbing, I would be giving up an amazing music scene. There have been some exceptions, but not many. This was one of them.

The Moon Room (MR) is small. 250 max small. Setup is poorly laid out. The stage is very close to the bar and the setup is awful for a full house with less than ideal viewing angles. Long corridors on either side of the bar, small stage front area, then a span leading to a food/eating pickup area - stage left. [-bar-] |stage The rectangle shape of the bar is setup in such a way where the viewing angles would be unforgivable in a packed house. I'm guessing that's what the MR is banking on. Fortunately, for me - the show wasn't a packed house. Minus band members, there were 20-25 people. (insert the biggest ear-to-ear, shit grin you can imagine on anyone's face) The show was private and empty. VFW hall empty. Fitting.

Venue layout aside, show was good. Sound was good. I was more than pleased to be taking down a couple beers while being privately entertained for my $10. I didn't make it on time for Lawsuit Models, which sucks because I listened to a couple tracks and thought they were tight. But I made it for Cheap Perfume and the rest of the line-up. Here's my scratch on the sets.

Cheap Perfume

Thought I'd be fully late. Made it for the full setup. Woh, from the Springs?! Ok... maybe there's hope.

Tight in the buzz. Vox that cut though with instruments in a lo-fi drone. Punk rock that doesn't give a fuck about the sound to get the message out. This isn't Naked Aggression. It's peeled way more back to a louder-than-a-fucking-flyer-in-your-chest in order to get the point across.

"I wanna bikini kill that dick."

Fucking hell. Raw. Mega raw. Eat shit raw.

Glad I made it.

Thin Lips

Wow. Very much a Shades Apart trio. Not in sound, but in style and playing ability. She was able to fill it out like a mofo. Holy fuck. Vox on point. Power trio. I can't believe they aren't bigger. Really. Need to check them out. I was just wondering how many of these bands I'll see at south-by. I haven't seen many and possibly the only mega-proficient front femme has been Ume. More please.

Worriers

Sounding as expected. Super good. Ergs dude isn't playing?! Wonder show the sub is. Lead guitar player was absolutely the center of attention. Tight, clean, very proficient, and made me appreciate the talent. During their set, I kept thinking to myself how much Lauren sounds in her writing like John Samson (The Weakerthans). A quick lookup showed me they've toured together. Another quick lookup shows Aubrey in some vids with Mikey... playing drums?! Wow, talent.

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