The KC Showcase: Run With It, "How To Start a Fire," ep

(Image courtesy of bands website)

Run with it are an alternative rock band from right here in Kansas City that I actually discovered after scanning a random Snapchat code they left on the side of a light pole and after a couple of months of seeing constant updates about this upcoming release and the amount of hype that this record was generating for them I decided to actually finally give them a listen because this release actually debuted on iTunes top alternative albums chart at number 66 and got these guy's a record deal which is pretty cool so here's my thoughts on what could possibly be Kansas City's Imagine Dragons.

Actually if I were to give these guy's some credit it'd be that they managed to make a product that has some really good production with each song sounding quite full and at times kind of didn't feel like an independent act with tracks like, “I Need a Light,” feeling like it could be sent to the radio there's a level of quality control that's very admirable and worth giving these guy's credit for, but it's oddly the high level of quality control that's honestly my biggest issue with this EP it's an incredibly safe sounding effort that produces songs that kind of make me feel like they need to be played on the kind of radio station for Midwestern soccer mom's who wore out their Matchbox Twenty CD's and that earlier comparison to Imagine Dragons is a bit more than a comparison because when I was initially trying to outline a review of this piece pretty much every song on here was noted as reminding me of Imagine Dragons to some capacity.

That's not really the worst thing in the world considering that their stylistic similarities to more mainstream modern alternative rock acts gives them an appeal that can reach a bigger audience than some of the other bands I've covered in this showcase segment and some of the tracks on here like, “Don't Waste My Time,” are still some solid tracks in their own right and the track, “One More Fight,” has a pretty bad ass guitar solo to close it out along with this bands vocalist Miguel Carballo actually has a very robust voice that showcases a good amount of inflection and really seems to properly give these songs a kind of faith inspired feel that I'm sure a good amount of people will really grab on to the only issue is I'm not one of those people.

This band is solid as hell but they're also probably the safest most well organized thing I've covered in a very long time and the week plus it's taken me to properly frame that thought just leaves me with a record that I can only really say that if you like Imagine Dragons, X-Ambassadors, or Matchbox Twenty you'll probably dig this band but if you're looking for something unique from this city I'd say look elsewhere for something a little less formulaic.

Here's a link to the bands website for anyone interested in purchasing this ep:

http://www.runwithitband.com/

3/5

Best: Don't Waste My Time and the outro guitar solo on One More Fight

Worst:Time