BITTER WAVVES

9:30pm on a ho-hum Tuesday night, I entered a very packed Sneaky Dee's just in time to hear the Bitters announce their presence. And guess what? I liked it, I really did. Reminded me of Thee Oh Sees minus the twang, plus some angular post-punk whatnot. And they said it was only their second practice together. No way! This band is one of the more charismatic I've seen in a while and what sets them higher for me, is the successful pairing of girl+boy vocals. The boy is Ben Cook, so I guess this is another Fucked Up side project, but I hope to see more of these guys soonish. I hear they have lots of recordings in the works as well, so while you're pre-ordering n' paypaling, get the Young Governor single too. It's good stuff, really.



Following the Bitters was Vampire Hands, and after a few minutes of their brand of weirdo punk/hippie noodling, I started to wish I had stayed home. Somehow I managed to stay put, daydreaming and staring down the bottom of my empty bottle. The lanky, keffiyah wearing fellow behind me shimmying away provided an amusing distraction. What was I doing here again???

After getting some much needed air and shooting the breeze, it was time for Wavves, the super duper extra hyped up bedroom band loved and hated all over the interweb. Honestly, that sort of love/hate made me want to see him that much more. I weaseled my way through the overstuffed bar comprised of really, really tall dudes and eventually rode the hipster pit to the front to see the diminutive Wavves (I don't know his name sorry) with drummer in tow. Anyway, what did this twosome sound like? Stomp stomp stomp drums, catchy, tuneful songs and cleaner, sweeter vocals than the recordings lead us to believe. Definitely not worthy of the crazy hype or the crazy hate, but I was won over. Lastly, the too-short set did allow me my guacamole fix before the night was over.