Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Pity Party and IO Echo at the Viper Room



Always remember the 5th of November. It was Guy Fawkes day on Monday and also happened to be a spectacular line up for the Indie 103.1 sponsored Check One, Two as Bedtime For Toys, The Pity Party and IO Echo were on the bill. It was also promoting Mark Sovel's KCET segment on the Los Angeles music scene.





Bedtime For Toys opened with their mash up '80s hip hop, metal and dance party tunes. I would liken them to a whirlpool of early No Doubt mixed with equal parts of Prince and Run DMC. Marchelle Bradanini (Vocals) was an extremely energetic front woman as she engaged the Viper Room audience. The room shaking bass lines were provided by Jenni Tarma who also has been known to take you to other galaxies with her work as the Eskimohunter bassist.








 
The Pity Party continues to grow at an exponential rate as they have honed their live chops playing a blistering set. The Pity Party have garnered some well deserved buzz as of late when they won a spot to play the Detour Festival last month as well as playing the Eagle Rock Music Festival on the same day. They have come a long way since I saw them in May. One of the things I enjoy about The Pity Party's live show is that they play their songs 1.67 times faster then the recorded versions. "White Hyper Sugar" mophs into a severely fractured and disjointed jam. M (Guitars/Vocals) has enhanced his pedal arsenal to include a Ground Control switching system to switch between his shattered glass tone and his octave down fuzz saw. Heisenflei (Drums/Vocals) switched between her drum stick and shaker for her one handed drum clinic while making her black keys on her Yamaha DX7 scream. I still don't know why they aren't signed yet.






 
IO Echo has also come a long way since I saw them back in August. IO Echo just came off an opening stint for She Wants Revenge and it showed as they played a tight set that had a strong sense of conviction. IO (Vocals) sounded sharp as she performed a frantic version of "Addicted" that is now gracing the airwaves of Indie 103.1. As a tribute to one of their British band members, they played an extra dark version of the Beatles song "I Want You(She's So Heavy)". "Addicted" is available on itunes or you can use Paypal to get their EP here. I am glad Indie 103.1 is putting their money where their mouth is by playing these bands on the air. IO Echo joins The Pity Party as another band that should be signed.

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