By Amber Shaffer, SDAM Staff Writer
©Copyright 2008 SDAM.com/Amber Shaffer

Catering to the soda pop and Skittles crowd, The Scene doesn't operate like most the venues I go to. Generally if I'm told a band goes on at 9pm, I can be pretty certain that if I arrive at 9:20 I'll probably still find the house lights up and the band making various tuning and warm-up noises. But at The Scene, their credo is "If you're early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're late". Shows tend to start and end ahead of schedule here, so make sure Mom drops you off with plenty of time to spare. I showed up 5 minutes prior to The Pinwheels' "8pm sharp" set time only to find they had started at a quarter 'til and their set of two minute head-bobbers was practically finished by the time is was supposed to start Still there was enough time left for me to enjoy some infectious tunes sang in a clear, sweet voice by a beguiling young lass whose keyboard was almost as long as she was tall. The Pinwheels may not blow you away with musical mind tricks, but they will certainly infect you with their earnest, catchy melodies and girl-boy harmonies. Their second to last song, "Take Me to Your Room" was a noteworthy little sing-a-long, but then again, who wouldn't want to sing along to that? Or maybe I'm just a bit randy these days… But something tells me there was more than one boy in the audience who would have been happy to comply with this charming singer's request. But only to show her his record collection, of course. And soon he'll be able to add The Pinwheels to that collection. They'll be heading in to the studio for the next month to track their first full-length CD. As soon as they find someone to replace ex-Pinwheel Jason Hee, who quit the band, but can't seem to get off the stage. Ham. Actually, he's being an accommodating guy and helping the band out with a handful of gigs until they can find a bassist to replace him. As I stood among the cute indie kids watching Resolver set up, I felt compelled to put on my thick-rimmed glasses and find my old, tight chords and Chuck Taylors. Resolver's female lead is one of those smart, witty-looking girls who sings an honest lyric and plays an uncomplicated, but good guitar. She resembled Lisa Loeb both in sound and appearance, but since Loeb is possibly the only guitar playing, eye-glasses wearing, singing female performer I can think of, my comparison my be cliché. It's not my genre, what can I say? Lead vocals were shared with a sweet-faced, young boy who has the adorable habit of singing with his eyes closed. Resolver (formerly known as Blender) are they type of band that leave you feeling content. Something about boy-girl vocals and the tempo of their music lulled me into a happy place. Plus watching so much youth on stage just makes me smile. The Transit War is probably afraid I'll write some terrible review of their set. Sure, they stood there not playing and talking to each other almost as much as they actually played. Impromptu band meetings? Tuning? Set clarification? Not sure what was going on. The singer vanished into thin air for a couple of minutes after (during??) the second song. I was busy discussing the need for additional buttons to decorate my bag strap (important stuff!), so I'm not sure when or why he left, I just know all of a sudden I could hear the ventilation system way too clearly. But the boys of Transit War can stop sweating this review, because when they did play, they rocked. They were loud and not-girly, which is what I needed. Sensitive girl singing is all fine and good, but I can only listen to it in small quantities. Sensitive, yelling boy-rock resonates with me more. Transit War's vocal style and song arrangement brought to mind new Atari's and Temecula's own Finch. And per my usual, I dug on the bass (not the bassIST – I didn't put on my thick-rimmed glasses, so I couldn't see). I would like to see them once more, when they have it a little more together, and when I'm not completely distracted by a pint-sized 14 year old flailing about in front of me like a young member of Jackass. Find out more about the Pinwheels on their Web site. Find out more about Resolver on their Web site. Find out more about Transit War on their Web site.