Rogue Wave took the Troubadour stage to a sold-out crowd that was ecstatic to see them. Jeremiah and I last saw Rogue Wave at the Knitting Factory at the end of June. That show was actually my inauguration into writing for Ice Cream Man and was also the first time that Jeremiah and I tried our hand at being a reviewing team together, so this show at the Troub made me sentimental. I was amazed by the size of the crowd since when I last saw RW at the Knitting Factory it was a bit sparse. Obviously word has been spreading about their pretty, acoustic tinged, somewhat dissonant, poppy rock.
RW powered through about an hour plus set playing material off both their records. Live, RW is amazing. Everyone in the band, except the lead singer, Zach Rogue, trades instruments throughout the set. Zach even joked about this saying that hell just stick with guitar because thats all he can do.
Thats fine for Zach though because I dont think Id want to see him doing anything else but singing, since he has such an amazing melodic voice that live sounds every bit as good as it does on their record. On stage, RW exudes energy and seems to truly enjoy playing for their audience. The set highlights for me were Publish My Love and Kicking the Heart Out. I was happy to see such a great turnout for RW and it was good to see all the new fans at the show. RW seems to be catching on among the indie rock kids and it makes me think that I am witnessing the beginning of something amazing!
This is where PBR induced Ice Cream Man takes over
I was at the show to see Mazarin. The night before the played our Xmas Party in Long Beach and it just wasn’t enough for me. They were stuck going on first which is weird for a band that’s on tour with the headliner. I guess Irving has been building quite a following so Maz was cool enough with letting them fill the slot. The sound at the Troub is a gazillion times better than the Prospector. There blazed through most of the tracks off their new album We’re Already There. It’s hard when you’re a fan because everything sounds great. I like to pay attention to see what the people in the audience think of bands they haven’t heard before. Judging by this, Mazarin picked up some new fans that night.
After checking out the upstairs bar to see if this might be one of those rare, free drink nights, i headed south to dig some Irving songs. As much as I was still a bit flustered by the fact they were playing after Maz, they seem to have a good thing going. The crowd was into it and the tunes were pretty damn harmless. Which I guess its what you’d expect from a rock band with three members sporting sweaters. To be completely fair I’ll have to check ’em again when i’m not peaved.
