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Cassette Fest Fest
Pat’s in the Flats
06-19-04
This was a benefit for
Cleveland college radio station WCSB, and also a showcase for the winners of
this year’s Cassette Fest. For those who don’t know what that is, Cassette
Fest is an annual event on WCSB where anyone who wants to can send in a 15
minute cassette (and cassette only) of their band. The cassette is played
on the air, and a team of station DJs and callers votes on its merits. The
submissions cover just about every subgenre of underground music one can
think of. They also cover a wide range of talent levels and degrees of
seriousness, so it wasn’t without a little trepidation that I decided to
check out this show on the patio of Pat’s in the Flats.
When I arrived, Lovespank was
just about to start playing. These guys turned out to be a rather pleasant
surprise. Not only did the band’s set consist of actual songs (not always
the case with Cassette Fest bands), but they were pretty good ones. The
band played noisy rawk with reasonably melodic vocals, delivering it all
with considerable energy. I don’t think anyone noticed at the time, but the
band was short a guitarist for most of their set. The missing musician
finally showed up just in time for the last song.
You like noise? Then you’d
love Dead Peasant Insurance a lot more than I did. Call me old fashioned,
but just banging on your instrument and screaming isn’t my cup of tea. The
two piece (bass and guitar) band was enough to drive me off the patio and
back to the solace of the bar. To be fair, I think the band set out with
the goal of being annoying, and they certainly succeeded.
Although Black Cabbage did the
noise rock thing as well, I liked them better. There was more of an attempt
to write actual songs, and the band had a good sense of humor. Black
Cabbage was a duo as well, both playing bass and vocalizing. The female
bass player used a slide at times, and the male bass player added cowbell to
one number. While I’m sure plenty of folks would be just as annoyed by
Black Cabbage as Dead Peasant Insurance, for me they stayed on the good side
of my agitation meter.
The last band I saw, The
Pinheads, played a set of fun and furious sitcom-core. Most of their songs
were about various sitcom characters. For example, one number was called
“Mr. Belvedere Eats Ding Dongs”. While I hope this doesn’t actually become
a trend, The Pinheads were a lot of fun. Nonetheless, I decided to hit the
road, thus missing Dolly’s Crotch and maybe another band or two.
For pictures click
here.
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