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down the shore with the gin blossoms

A spring full of following Cobra Starship up and down the East Coast left my judgement for how early one needs to arrive at a show completely skewed. After a surprisingly easy trip down the shore (Thank you proper signage!), I arrived at the Jenkinson's boardwalk to find very few shops open and killed some time in a souvenir shop and grabbed dinner at a pizza place before going in to get in line for the Gin Blossoms. By the way, the candy store across the boardwalk from the pavillion has excellent chocolate caramel fudge, if you're into that sort of thing.

The first openers were a band called "Love Child" who I had never heard of. As far as their music goes, they played their instruments well and they weren't bad by any stretch, but they weren't terribly memorable. Their stage banter could definitely use work, as it was practically non-existent. They announced their name at the beginning of their set and didn't say another word between the next three songs. Both of the vocalists were very laid back and didn't do much in the way of movement or interacting with the crowd.

Speaking of the vocalists, I want to say that I was initially going to skip this band since I'd never heard of them but when I saw they had a female vocalist I stuck around. It's my opinion that there aren't nearly enough women in the music industry and I always make it a point to check out a band with women in it. That said, the female vocalist in this band didn't really impress me. She had a good voice, but my big complaint is that she barely sang. She did back up oooh's and such on some songs, but there were entire songs where she sang nothing at all. And given that she didn't play an instrument, it was a good thing that she was comfortable on stage while not doing anything because she had plently of down time. I have seen people on stage who are uncomfortable with nothing to do and it is just as awkward to watch.

The drummer is really the only one who stood out to me because he had a lot of energy. Or at least, he had a lot of energy in comparison to the rest of the band. As I said, the vocalists were rather laid back, not only in their stage perfomance, but in the type of music that they played. Without the beat of the drums, it would be the type of music one would expect to hear in a low lit coffee shop. So good on you drummer, for keeping my interest.

And like I said, it isn't that they were bad at all, but for someone like myself who likes to be entertained when at a show, their live performance left something to be desired.





Next up was Kinda Like True Love, a band not far from my hometown. I first saw Chris Sterlacci last November as a solo act and since the last time I saw him in January he has gained himself a full band. I wouldn't have even know about this show if not for having their myspace friended and when I saw I could get a local band that I loved and the Gin Blossoms in one show, well that was pretty hard to resist. I did grow up in the 90's after all. The Gin Blossoms are pretty near and dear to my heart.

Getting back to KLTL, they started off with a new song, and right away I loved how they sounded as a full band. Chris has a great presence on stage, and he and bassist Phil bantered the way good friends do during the first few songs and they crowd definitely warmed to them. They also sang a demo that was once called "From My Bed to Yours," now changed to "Bedside," and I think I approve of the title change. From Open Hearts & Empty Pages they sang "I'd Give Anything For August," "Open Hearts," and my favorite, "Self-Titled."

They had a few technical difficulties, but they barely disrupted the set. The only complaint I had was that Chris's guitar was up just a bit too loud, and it drowned out his vocals a bit. If I hadn't already known the words to some of the songs, I don't know that I would have been able to decipher them. The song they did with him on acoustic guitar however, sounded great. I wish he'd been on acoustic the whole time actually, but I may just be used to seeing him in coffee shops.

They announced towards the end of the set that they have a new ep coming out July 5th. (For those unwilling to wait, it's available on itunes right now.) There's been some new stuff up on their myspace in the past few months that I really liked so I'll be looking forward to this ep when it comes out.





Finally, the Gin Blossoms were up. And isn't is always the way, ten minutes before they came on, a somewhat drunk (and more than somewhat annoying) girl barrelled her way to the front and stood right next to me. Despite her I managed to have thoroughly awesome time.

I was unaware of this at the time, but the Gin Blossoms did not dissappear into a black hole for the past decade or so while my musical interests diverged elsewhere. They did however breakup in 1997, only to reunite in 2002 and they released Major Lodge Victory in 2006. Although I was unfamiliar with the new stuff I really enjoyed it. They managed to have the same sound without seeming like they were rewriting the same songs over and over again.

The fact that I was literally inches away from guitarist, Scott Johnson is probably a big part of the reason I was able to block out the annoyance to my left. (I don't want to be in your myspace shots, Drunk Girl. You're at a concert, please watch the band and leave me alone.) But I digress. He was awesome to watch and the fact that he had a penchant for coming up and playing right in the audience's faces made for a memorable perfomance. Especially during "Til I Hear It From You," when I concert-called a friend and he played into my phone.

Similarly, lead singer Robin Wilson took phones from audience members throughout the set and sang directly into the them. In addition he also took photos with people in the front row when he wasn't singing and passed his tamborine to various audience members, one of which was the nine year old boy to my right. (Not a bad first concert experience for him, I'll bet.) Robin was very excited about toasting with the crowd and making them drink with him. At one point he dedicated a song to someone at the bar for "singing along and knowing all the words."

I could list the entire set list for you, as I managed to snag one at the end of the show, but as I'm too lazy to dig it out of my bag o' concert memorabilia I'm just going to list the highlights.

Naturally they performed all their hits, "Found Out About You," "Alison Road," "Til I Hear It From You," "Jealousy," and lastly during their encore, "Follow You Down." The one new song that stood out to me was "Learning the Hard Way," and the absolute highlight of the set was the cover of "Rocketman" they started their encore with. It started with just Robin and eventually he was joined one by one by the rest of the band, a tactic I really enjoy so that was definitely A+.

In a completely unrelated note, Robin has one of the coolest text tattoos I've ever seen. "Is this the real life..." down the back of his forearm. Can't go wrong with some Bohemian Rhapsody.

You can catch the Gin Blossoms later this summer at the Quick Check Festival of Ballooning. (Go for the band, skip the rest of the fair, as I know from experience it's pretty lame.)

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