Better Things, For The Kid In The Band, Doom Service, Carraway And Slingshot Dakota At 242 Main November 1, 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music last Saturday at 242 Main. I was able to get out of work a little bit early and arrived at the club close to 7. The first band had cancelled so I was just in time. Too bad, they were supposed to play covers of Dead Kennedy’s songs. At least I would have known some of those songs. The evening began acoustically with Brad Yandow and Brian LaClair from Better Things alternating songs on acoustic guitar. Brad began with Hail Satan then played a couple of the Mountain Goats songs. I’m not sure the first two Brian songs, but his last was an excellent Frank Turner song. Both have strong guitar playing skills and solid voices. Both sounded great and the show was off to a wonderful start. Doom Service followed with a nice heavy rocking set. I think it was mostly alt rock songs from the ’90’s, but I really don’t know that musical period very well. A couple of the songs sounded familiar, but everything was good. They rocked hard, got the crowd bouncing a bit and were pretty fun onstage. The next band was a trio called For The Kid In The Band. They had a guitar player/singer and drummer from New York, and were were joined by Roy from Doom Service on bass. I think they played Blink 182 songs, but, as was the theme for the evening, I did not know any of them. They were pretty fun and played loud and fast. Everything rocked nicely, and I was pretty content. After a short break, a band called Carraway hit the stage. Wearing the appropriate make-up, they announced themselves as Hipster KISS but did not play any Kiss songs, except for a short Detroit Rock City riff for a couple of seconds. I think they did not do covers and played their own songs, but I’m not sure. They were pretty tight and rocked hard. I really liked the songs and they ended the night with a vocal piece that was quite striking. I will have to check them out again soon. After a bit, Slingshot Dakota got set up and started to play. With just a keyboard and drums, they unleashed a killer sound that rocked the club to its core. The audience was a mixture of impressed and awed as they played lots of songs from their new album Dark Heart. I did not know the album well enough so just went along for the ride and loved every note. They tossed a cover of Tyrone by Erykah Badu that had some cool funky rhythms, and closed with a killer Fugazi song. The set was pure beauty, joy and rock and roll. I’d been waiting for a long time to see them again and they were just as wonderful as ever. When the last notes rang out, I said a quick goodbye. I took the happy walk home with a heart full of wonderful music.

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