Live shot August 28 2003
With music editor Roni Sarig's imminent return to this space, I took an opportunity to make my time here a totally elliptical orbit: I set up shop Saturday night at Smith's to see the bands I covered (or didn't cover) in my first LS back in May.
Smith's Olde Bar, Aug. 23: As the competition heated up on this sixth night of band battles, the madness of Open Mic Madness was finally gripping others besides host/organizer Josh Rifkind. Serenading the audience and judges between acts, Rifkind spun his peculiar brand of sharp one-liners and toilet humor. By the end, the curly-haired emcee crowned another champion. The prize? A chance to perform on the Rock Boat with the likes of Sister Hazel, Tonic and Edwin McCain. No, really, what was the real prize for winning this thing?
After 128 competitors had bludgeoned each other and the judges with their sometimes good, sometimes horrendous takes on rock, country, soul and more for five nights, four acts remained by late Saturday night — a pair of power trios, the Whigs and Telegram, the little-man-with-the-big-soulful-voice, Daniel Lee, and jill-of-all-instruments, Amanda Kapousouz.
In the semifinals, Telegram and the Whigs butted heads in an epic battle. Telegram burst out of the gate with its singer belting out lyrics garage-style over some seriously taught instrumentation, courtesy of the drummer's stomp and the stand-up bassist's unique strut. The Whigs countered with the best song heard all week — a grandiose, neo-psychedelic pop ballad powered by dreamy, Beatlesque keyboards. Alert and fill-happy drumming anchored the spacey soundscape to the ground before it went soaring into oblivion on the strength of a heroic guitar solo. These guys aren't even out of college yet, but they were into the finals.
On the solo side, Lee showed off his heavily inflected, gymnastic voice, adding a percussive element to his semifinal effort. Unfortunately for Lee, his ride in OMM 2003 ended right where it did last year. Kapousouz, who followed, claimed to have just started writing songs — which would make her the Mike Vick of songwriting. She switched from accordion to violin, layered her sound with delay pedals, and assumed a Chan Marshall-like, breathy tone to deliver the most vivid lyrics of the tournament.
When Kapousouz and the Whigs met in the final, even the thrill of seeing Kapousouz switch instruments yet again couldn't quell the lingering fallout of the bomb the Whigs' dropped in the semifinals. The three guys from the University of Georgia got their sea legs, among an assortment of other prizes (prizes they can dream about while playing shuffleboard with the Dave Matthews Cover Band). Stay close to the life raft, boys.
As an antidote to the horrors of competition, Rifkind smartly booked Y-O-U to play at the tournament's end. Coming out one-by-one to taped personal introductions, the band members looked dapper as ever in their complementary suits. Singer Nick Niespodziani took the stage as an inscrutable voice (think Charlie Brown's teacher) quacked his intro.
After playing a foot-tapping power-pop opener, the band launched into the first of a few scattered covers that dotted its set. Perhaps paying homage to Michael Jackson, the favorite/estranged son of Indiana (Y-O-U's home state), the quintet busted out with "The Way You Make Me Feel." Niespodziani showed off his vocal range early on, shooting a half-octave below Jacko on the cover and then soaring to a lip-quivering falsetto for the song "LA Lindsay."
With a well-honed, full-bodied sound, Y-O-U consistently ranks among the top acts in the city. With each musician playing his role — that is, an instrument and a quirky body movement — to perfection, the band has its collective toe stapled to the line between kitsch and rock show. Y-O-U's music is like a romantic comedy: It's not the kind of thing guys would generally like, but it's too charming to deny. And bringing a date to see it virtually guarantees sex.
Like a pop/rock jukebox that spans the last 40 years, Y-O-U is peppy and well-mannered — the kind of band you can take home to your mom. And after the grit and grandeur of Open Mic Madness, a little fun and retro escapism was all anyone was in the mood for.