Church Gets Dirty

I finally got a chance to see The Dirty Dishes along with some other local bands on December 4, 2009 at Church in Boston, MA. I first have to mention that Church is among my favorite bars and small venues in the area. Located right outside of Fenway, it serves as a superb substitute to the stereotypical sports bars that plague the area. Church has nightly music as well as pools tables and brings in a diverse alternative crowd. It served as the ideal place to showcase the local bands that were performing. The Dirty Dishes opened the show and graced the modest audience with their catchy shoegaze tunes. Despite some microphone hiss, the band sounded great delivering tracks from their debut EP In the Clouds which I recently spotlighted. Songs like "Dear in the Headlights", their catchiest jam, showcased Jenny Tuite popping notes from her guitar amongst the timid delivery of her vocals. "Stolen Apples" was a punchier tune allowing drummer Mike Thomas to excitedly pound the skins in the background amid the dissonant synth. The live setting added strength to the soaring chorus of "In the Clouds" which was one of the highlights of the performance. In all, it was a solid set and I'm looking forward to catching them again soon.

The second band to play was King Orchid, a duo of hippies thrashing around on drums and guitars. The first song they played was a fairly alluring instrumental piece that had some good rock out moments in its structure. However, as their set went on, I found myself less and less interested; especially when it came to the tracks with vocals. Their faster instrumental material was definitely what I preferred about their particular style. The next band up was Sugar Mama, a pretty straightforward alternative rock band. The influence from Incubus and Sublime was especially evident. There weren't any songs that particularly stood out during the course of their set. It wasn't exactly my thing I guess but it wasn't bad at the same time. It served as adequate background music for me to chill with a drink and talk to some folks. Unfortunately, I had to leave and meet some people before the last band, SuperVolcano, took the stage. They have one of the better sounds coming out of the local scene and I even detect a hint of Shudder to Think in their style which is always a good thing. Give a few tunes a listen on their myspace. I guess I'll have to wait until they swing around again to catch their live show.