Violette Ultraviolet, Swale, And Caveman At Signal Kitchen October 14, 2013

Words by Tim Lewis.

I just got back from seeing music at Signal Kitchen. I was running late, but caught two songs from Violette Ultraviolet. I walked in, barely out of work, and caught the groove, wonderfully mixed with subtlety and intensity. I fell into their serious builds and ripping guitar workouts, and loved every moment that they were on. I was bummed I missed most of their set, but loved what I caught.

Swale followed with a perfect set. The sound was fantastic, they played like fury, and put me through the roof. They opened with a conundrum of a song and followed with a killer Faineant. Waterlanding was ripped from the sky excellent. Middlesex was gorgeous. Overcoat had a killer, over the top, rocking middle section. Everyone Likes to Fight and Popular Crowd rocked hard, and had me flailing with joy. They closed with a slow Good Medicine, that felt like it was going to rip from the start, but stayed mellow, until that switch where it took off to majestic heights. What a fantastic show!

I knew nothing about Caveman, and they took the stage with a full rock sound. They reminded me of the rock/pop sound of Longwave. There were elements of U-2 here and there. In general they had a full sound with drenched keys, a pretty sweet guitar player, a drummer who had that great bounce to his playing, but…..They never took it over the top. It sounded great, but had a bit of Coldplay restraint. There were several spots in the several songs I hung out for, where they could have really gone off, but every time they brought it back to the easy to find pop zone. I liked what they sounded like, but they just didn’t rock me. That said, I easily, and happily, got my $10.00 worth at the show tonight.

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.