NEW
VENUE FOR BANDS
---Trevor
Dishaw
The weather was actually pretty fair
on April 19th, 2008, where around 60 people gathered
in the back half of the Ogdensburg Bowling Alley to
watch and hear some music. I can proudly say I was one
of the many who left completely blown away. The bill
consisted of three bands, Clarity for Closure from Ogdensburg,
Number 2 from Syracuse, and Snake Blood Drinker, also
from Ogdensburg. The crowd was in for a delectable treat
from the musical world.
Clarity For Closure took the stage
first with great intensity. Their songs contain haunting,
almost bone-chilling opening riffs to prepare fans for
sheer chaos. Every member is as hard-working as the
other. Clarity For Closure delivers melodic rock to
an open book crowd, hanging on every riff, word, drum
roll, “gone for a walk” bass lines, and
powerful in your face guitars and stage presence. Not
being greedy for the spotlight and try to take away
from lead singer Scott Kroeger’s intense vocal
styling, Dan Barkley and Chris Davis show the roles
and lead and rhythm guitar, illustrating the individual
talents and simultaneous perfect communication skills.
Jud Whitey never hits the same thing more than two consecutive
times. He’s everywhere on the drum kit, bringing
a little more to the table than most drummers. His drumming
just doesn’t keep the beat; it is one cluster
of several and unique-to-the-song instruments. The end
of the set is the most hectic, where the band is packing
up their equipment while the next band is bringing theirs
in.
Number 2, the incendiary demi-dogs
of prog-rock, dared the 2 hour trip to bring their genius
to the might-as-well-be island that is Ogdensburg. A
duo, rare indeed, Chris Stewart and Bob Breen, both
Ogdensburg natives, bring structure and technicality
to an unsuspecting crowd that was wondering where the
rest of the band was. This is the band where you music-wise,
trying to find the timing and anticipate the riffs of
the song(s) come full circle. You actually try to remember
chunks of the song to see if you can follow along. Naturally,
both the members have to work overtime in order to make
up for the absence of the rhythm guitarist, singer,
and bass player. For the first time seeing them live
and hearing them live, the songs are hard to follow.
Just when you think the song is going to end, they jump
right back into the song, taking the crowd’s mind
for a rollercoaster ride. Being a duo, they didn’t
have much to pack up and move, so the equipment was
left behind a billiard table, but it was closely watched.
The last (but not to be the least)
band up was Snake Blood Drinker. This trio’s origins
are somewhere in the late 1990’s in the town of
Ogdensburg. Greg Bresett, Steve Morley, and Steve Allen
(not the talk show host) took to the stage with great
applause and attentiveness from the crowd. They deliver
their songs in a raw and powerful fashion, with a somewhat
lo-fi vocal style. Steve Morley rocks an off-yellow
Gibson SG with authority and rawness that only Steve
can deliver. Greg Bresett is on a blue Fender P-bass
and takes the bass lines and kicks them up a notch.
It’s not so much that he’s following Steve’s
guitar, which he somewhat is, but he fills in the gaps
in the middle where there is nothing. Steve Allen has
so much intensity that on occasions he will kind of
stand up from his drum stool and viciously attack his
drums, however he never loses the beat or misses the
drums he is attacking. Tie it all together and you have
Snake Blood Drinker. They came out swinging, they ended
swinging. Their very intense stage presence kept the
crowd into their songs the entire time.
All the bands put on excellent and
memorable sets. The crowd was into it, no matter what
band was playing at the time. The Ogdensburg Bowl is
a pretty decent venue and in the future there should
be more shows there. The environment is pretty relaxed
and there is plenty of room to move around. ---
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