School of Seven Bells at Empty Bottle

School of Seven Bells makes the term "shoe gaze" easy to sell if I may for a moment use that to describe them. They have this mysterious Twin Peaks thing....a little bit in some of the songs, enough to hook you and on we go. Yeah like Julee Cruise with faster cardio...at least for me. This band is something that I believe I will listen to for a long time in part because they evoke and crystalize so much of what I like. Their voices are never over the top, but they calm the storm, or they ride it. They play to my archetypes. They can sound mysterious without seeming pompous about it. They can sound happy, they can sound dark, but the fog is ever present. Still it never bores you. This statement I can perhaps say about all the bands that played that Wednesday night.

Panda Riot I missed but I've seen them a lot, most recently at The Whistler. They are what a goth listens to in the morning. It's happy, feminine shoe gaze, still foggy, urban. They are playing new music now. And they added another singer. Warpaint I did not expect to like. I did no research on them what so ever, and so they hit me over the top when they ended their set with "krimson"(I missed most of it). Hell they are all different embodiments of the same archetype.

I chase after the fleeting moments, even from bands that I have seen before. The Empty Bottle offers an intimacy Bottom Lounge does not have. School Of Seven Bells I've seen previously at Bottom Lounge. Smaller completely enhances the experience. It's really cool when a band that has seen a venue like Bottom Lounge later on play to a smaller place like the Bottle. Every band that played that 14th October, a Wednesday was awesome, Panda Riot....alright so I missed them, but I know they were great. War Paint keeps imprinting on me every day. I absolutely love War Paint. I did not catch them, they caught me with the last two songs from their set and so this impression is more from hearing them on CD rather than seeing them live, but it was clear that War Paint had fans that night. This slow song had everyone kind of hypnotized. I was really praying not to like this, 'cause I save money. If I do...then I don't save money.

I walked in wanting to know if this moment was something I should capture or should I let the sand slip through my fingers. The last song sold me. Depreciation Guild was next and they were great as well but I had to choose what to buy and I got War Paint.. It's nice to anticipate the little things you discovered the first time. Most of the time, that one show you saw is the one iconic moment you frame and you preserve with the CD, with the shirt, with the vinyl that comes with the download code. And you stay broke!