Monday, May 24, 2010

Contenders Series #38: Rogue Wave - "Solitary Gun"

I've hit a pretty serious patch of inactivity at work lately.  You probably could have inferred this based on the number of 3,000 word Jesus Music posts going up lately.  Today is more of the same, sitting around waiting to hear back on a series of "Do you need help?  On anything?  Please?" emails.

So I should probably blog, but I'm having a hard time getting started.  Let's start with a short one.  What do I have to say about Rogue Wave?

Positive:

(1)  Well, they're a local band.  I always feel like I should be more connected to the local scene, like I should be out there discovering killer indie bands playing ragged sets in dive bars every night, like I should be able to say, "I saw them once, and they played for six people, and actually helped serve drinks between songs."

I do not do this.  I like a fair number of local bands (Rogue Wave, Mates of State, Morning Benders, AFI, etc), but they're all nationally established, and I usually find out about them through national media.  I started listening to Rogue Wave when I was still living in Minnesota.  This is not one of my obscure San Francisco finds.

(2)  Now that I go to more concerts than is healthy/financially advisable, I never see opening bands anymore.  Ilana and I treat concerts like surgical strikes.  If we can show up exactly as the headliners take the stage, we will.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  I have sat through plenty of terrible opening bands in my life.  Three-band bills can be exhausting.  We have a lot of fun at concerts, and I wouldn't change a thing.

But it does make me think of the days when going to a concert was a huge deal, and I would show up when the doors opened, and watch every band that came onstage.  I saw the Shins at First Avenue in Minneapolis sometime around 2003, and I got there in plenty of time to see the first band on the bill.  I had never heard of them.  That was Rogue Wave.  Yeah, I'm sure I would have found out about them later, but it's a cool little discovery story, and it makes me like them more.

(3)  This song is wonderful.

Negative:

(1)  It's the only song I really like on their new album, Permalight.  I only liked two or three songs on their last album (though one of them, "Chicago X 12" is probably my all-time favorite Rogue Wave song).  I liked basically everything on their first two albums.  This probably says more about me than it does about the band.

Download:  Rogue Wave - Solitary Gun

Official Site
Hype Machine
Buy Permalight

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