Local Music Showcase At The Flytrap Music Hall

Friday night while at work I received a call from a former employee and dare I say it, friend, who we will call Thomas (basically because that's his name) because he wanted to let me know that his band Kaizen Pursuit (google it for an explanation) would be playing Saturday night at the Flytrap Music Hall and he wanted me to come see them play. This was to be the 2nd time they had played at a local showcase for newer bands at The Flytrap and he said they would probably play at around 9PM but the club hadn't given them any indication of what the order of bands would be.

Upon receiving the okay from my wife (AKA The Boss) I waited for the appropriate time and then jumped into my truck and made the drive in less than 10 minutes. After paying the $5 cover fee I ventured inside and quickly Thomas came up to me and informed me that I had just missed them. Unfortunately they had been the 1st band of the night. Since I hadn't seen Thomas for a few months I thought at least I could hang out for a little while and talk. Okay the thought that I'd paid the cover charge and hadn't even been able to see them play also crossed my mind.

The next band up (and the first for me to see) was, well I didn't catch their name. They sounded like Creed clones (not a good thing in my book) and nobody in the band had any stage presence whatsoever, least of all the vocalist. The most he could manage other than his double fist grab of the microphone was to a take a few shambling steps to one side as if he was some homeless person meandering around looking for something to eat. Luckily for him this is exactly the kind of gig where you can learn how to present yourself to a live audience. I will add that the drummer was very good.

The 3rd band was called Sleepwalking Home and basically they are a female fronted screamo rock band with a commercial sound to them. Again, not my kind of music but at least they had some energy and their vocalist definitely had stage presence. It's not perfected yet but she does have it. I can see how females would gravitate to this band simply because it has a female singer and that might help them in their drive to become bigger but that's not all that they've got. If you like this kind of music then give them a chance based upon the music first.

At this point I was all set to go but for some reason I decided to stay and check out the next band, if only for a song or two. Instead I ended up staying for their entire set. They were a cross between Cypress Hill and Sublime (they sounded like they could have come from Long Beach) as they had 3 rappers (2 who appeared to be Mexican American and 1 who looked like he was a white rasta) and a guitarist who looked like Mick Jones from The Clash. I believe their name was The Informers but since The Flytrap didn't bother to put anything up on their website I can't say for sure. Their set was a bit ragged in part because it seemed like in some songs they had left it open so that they could freeform rap and kind of tag in when they wanted to and then the song would come to a crashing halt. There were plenty of bright spots for me though and I think of the 3 bands they were the most promising because they are so different from the majority of commercial crud out there whether it is local or national. Give them a year or less to work on their song structures and smooth out the rough spots and then watch out. Now if only I could find some info about them on the web, so far I haven't been able to find anything.

There was to be at least 1 more band but I had to bow out since I have to get up early in the morning to teach my Sunday School class. That's right, I said it. Look, as I get up onto my soapbox I'll let you know that I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, mess around or try to force my views and beliefs on others but sometimes I do like to hear live music so cut me some slack. What someone wants to do is their business as long as they aren't hurting somebody else. Don't judge me on your past experiences and I won't judge you on mine. With that said it's now time to get to sleep so that I can get up and teach the aforementioned class. Tomorrow I'll come back and read over this to edit all of my mistakes so until then cut me some slack, I'm tired. Below is a video from Kaizen Pursuits first visit to The Flytrap, maybe next time I'll even be able to see them play.