Recap: Thursday at The UMS 2011

Last night at The UMS was pretty amazing. Lots of great music, friends, Maker’s Mark, some women in trashy 80s clothing, bands I’m discovering, Maker’s Mark. Did I mention there was Maker’s Mark there? I took notes, photos and videos last night, here are the fruits of my labor.

Dirty Mittens, 8pm, Skylark

Dirty Mittens this was not. It’s actually some guy playing electric guitar. He gets bonus points for playing in shorts. I liked his singer/songwriter stuff. Not bad, but most exceptional was his amazing beard. He announced who he was: Jacob Metcalf from Dallas Texas, which makes the beard that much more impressive. He said he hadn’t touched an electric guitar in 10 years. Still, not so bad. I got a tweet from @DirtyMittens telling me their bus broke down in Salt Lake City. Hopefully I’ll get to see them soon.

Pictures of Then, 9pm, Moe’s

I walked up to Moe’s, which is weirdly out of place considering the other venues are all within 3 blocks of each other. I’m happy I made the trip to see Pictures of Then. This was their first time playing Colorado. They had a million effect pedals in front of them. Hilariously, the TV was still on behind the band. The bar was relatively empty, maybe 20 people were there. At one point the bass player puts on sunglasses. Either he’s “that cool” or on acid, sometimes it’s hard to say. Both guitarists and bassist sang some songs together (classy). Both guitarists take leads (also classy). There was also a kid watching who looks like he’s straight out of Huck Finn. Suspenders, jeans rolled up, only thing missing is a piece of hey betwixt his teeth. The main vocalist guitar player’s voice is what would happen if Jim Morrison and the dude from Modest Mouse had a baby, and that baby started a band that played at The UMS. A dude volunteering for the UMS was dancing not unlike Andy Richter dancing as a harem girl in the film “Cabin Boy”. There’s also a woman drawing an ink sketch of the band which was cool to see.

Wire Faces, 10pm, Hi-Dive

Previously known as that band my local bartender plays in, Wire Faces put on a pretty great show. The drummer is often the main singer, and also gets to set up his kit in line with the guitar and bass, not unlike the band Telekinesis. The drummer has Chili Peppers-style vocals sometimes. Ian does sweet guitar tapping on a few songs. The drummer was rocking a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt. There were flashes of the “punk-era Police” crossed with the Clash. I also enjoyed the dude in a tie-dye in the front pretending he was a drummer. 2nd band in a row that has 3 people singing on songs. Impressed.

Oh No Oh My – 11pm, Irish Rover

Hailing from Austin, Oh No Oh My also used the first acoustic guitar I’ve seen so far at The UMS. They had some loud and good vocals. Reminded me at times of Doug Martsch from Built To Spill. Different band members played different instruments as the set progressed. “Summerdays” off their album “People Problems” was the best song of set. I really have enjoyed listening to these guys over the last week. Hope to see them again in Colorado soon.

El Ten Eleven, 12:30am, Hi-Dive

The band that caught my attention the most while listening to so many bands on Spotify was El Ten Eleven. It’s sort of this funkified instrumental dance fuzz music with just a guitar and bass player. There were no less than 5 guitars on stage – which turns out to be wrong. It was 3 double-necked guitar/bass electrics, and an electric bass. This was the first real multimedia show of The UMS. Great lights. Back screen projection. Multiple cameras broadcasting live to the screen behind the two guys. The multimedia show featured awesome old timey movies, including a medley of scenes from an old movie about gangs and beer pressure. Loop stations and bass harmonics were used liberally. And some cowbell! They also rocked a great version of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army. Often times with the double neck guitar, the left hand would play bass while the right hand would play guitar. He also bowed the bass at times, and this was no upright. Expert use of the Boss loop station, even the reverse button with some bass. This was definitely the highlight of my festival, and I still have 3 days to go.

So that was Thursday. Here’s the Spotify playlist I’m listening to for bands playing tonight at The UMS. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

How I basically single-handedly killed Guitar Hero

If you haven’t heard, they aren’t going to be making Guitar Hero games any more. If you remember, I gave an Ignite Boulder talk in front of 1400 people about why Guitar Hero sucks, and in the process basically put a heckler down in the best possible way. Apparently the developers heard my presentation. Don’t pretend to be the musician you want to be, work your ass off to become a good musician! Here’s my 5 minutes of fame. If you’re not into listening to 5 minutes of me talking, just a short snippet of my destroying my heckler is below, just click on the word “@4:26″ down there.