Palo Alto, The Sounds, Rooney
Cane's - Mission Beach, San Diego
September 30th 2003
By Amber Shaffer, SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright
2008
SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer
| As I lounged in Cane's,
surrounded by the next generation of Casbah hipsters, one thing became
very apparent; a flower behind your ear is the new trucker hat. Girls.
Boys. Whoever. Flowers are apparently a gender-less accessory. Or maybe
the Rooney fans are just more in touch with their feminine side.
I always write that I like Cane's because of the plethora of parking. But I also like it because they have great sound. And lots of places to sit, which I especially appreciated this evening because I started running again and every step sets my quads on fire. So my companion and I plunked ourselves down at one of the tables at the back of the room next to the 92.1 radio guys and enjoyed (most) the show, as well as the news and baseball highlights on the glowing TVs hanging above our heads. A bit distracting to have TVs playing right above your line of vision when you're watching a show, but on the other hand, it provided great distraction during sound checks and Swedish Euro-Pop. We arrived mid-Palo Alto set. They sounded amazing. I'm not sure if it was the vocals that were great, or just the reverb, but either way, they were nice to listen to. I really liked them, although it was a little harder after my friend told me they sounded like a bunch of bands I don't like and who generally cause me to change the radio station (vocals a la Radiohead, Travis rock sound, and Coldplay's piano). While my side kick disappeared into The Cantina for a grown-up refreshment, I stayed and half-napped in my seat. The din of the 16 and over crowd was as soothing as one of those Sharper Image nature sounds radios. Earlier in the evening I was a little surprised to see Cane's had guard rails up in front of the stage. It wasn't a sold out show, though it was pretty packed to my surprise (early start time on a Tuesday night - who knew?). But once Rooney took the stage and the girls started screaming, I understood a little better. There was enough high-pitched screaming to think I had mistakenly wandered back into the Hanson show I was at earlier this month. They're cute, they shake their bangs a lot and they're miniature. Clearly they needed the protection. As for their sound, it's catchy; I caught myself humming their last tune on my way back to my car. For some reason, the only thing I can think to say is they're kinda like an updated Cheap Trick.
To recap: |
Sandwiched between these two bands of cute-boy-rock was essentially a Missing
Person's revival band known as The Sounds. They're from somewhere in Europe.
They play crappy Euro Synth-Pop music. Don't get me wrong, the music was FUN,
and all the band members are hot, but they still couldn't trick me into thinking
they're GOOD. Yeah, ME, lover of all fun music and hot musicians. Go figure.
They had quite the teenage fan following though. All the kids were jumping
around and screaming as the platinum Swede, or whatever she was, marched back
and forth across the stage, asking "Are you ready for another hit?!?"
Um...no, but your synth drumming duo is so entertaining, it makes sitting
through your set worth it somehow.