I hate to admit it, but I started to forget what it’s like to just enjoy music.
My view of music has changed in the past few years, and it has become somewhat repetitive. Most of what I’m into is kind of bland — and oddly familiar. I needed to step back and reevaluate. Enter Even Flow: The best live and local rock bar located in Bay Shore, Long Island. Saturday night I decided that instead of going crazy with the camera I was going to be more passé and actually listen. What an experience it was! Music really can feed the soul if you let it in.
A single note can change our mood, good or bad. Music is riddled with emotion. Live music does all that, maybe more. When you get bands out of the studio and in front of a live audience, special things happens. Saturday night was a special showcase for Renegade Radio, an internet-based radionation dedicated to promoting the underground music scene. Founder Sean Wernersbach, fresh off live streaming SXSW, has devoted the past 16 years to developing this format. This is third installment of the showcase and it was fantastic.
The night started off with Sharks in the Shallow – a band with a beautiful, early 90s-refined grungy sound. The clean sound of the vocals played well with the heavy sound of the strings. They brilliantly paved the way for Deuce Banger. This marked the first Long Island performance for Banger, a four-piece ensemble emanating from the Boro of Brooklyn who trekked from Bay Ridge to Bay Shore on that beautiful Saturday night.
If there was ever a name that properly described a band, it is Deuce Banger. They were crazy energetic, crowd friendly and revved the Even Flow crowd to a dizzy. I do like the occasional cover; if for nothing else, to hear their version of something I know. I really enjoyed their version of Van Halen’s “Panama”. It was completely different than the original but very well done.
The Vinyl Plane headlined this showcase, but in my opinion, any of the bands that played could have. For those unfamiliar, The Vinyl Plane can be described as a retro rock/ bluesy band also from Long Island. They are the perfect generational mash up spanning from the 1970s to 90s; “throwback” band best describe them. The Vinyl Plane concentrates mainly on rhythm and excellent song writing and the result is both familiar and complex. The Vinyl Plane is everything that is right with rock-n-roll.
