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

Sam Went to a show last night....oh and Happy Valentines Day

So before I get into anything people I'd like to take the 30 seconds to say that Kansas City's 96.5 The Buzz is the best station ever....just saying they're more then responsible for making KC an amazing showcase for young and emerging artist and deserve as much love as possible and last night they had their annual Afentra's VD show and it was pretty bad ass and I'm going to tell you guy's just how awesome.

 Like I said last night was their annual Valentines Day concert and rather then taking the route of just having one obviously big act headline the whole thing they instead decided to have a series of bands and artist looking to make something of themselves and last night was a pretty solid showcase so here's the acts that played and my thoughts of them.

X Ambassadors

So these guy's opened the show with a pretty solid set of tunes that were a good bit of energy and plenty of interesting instrumentation and solid songs but I think they unfairly got the issue of opening band syndrome which kind of meant they didn't get the crowd in the heat of the moment but they were still solid none-the-less and I figure they may get to be better in time.

In the Valley Below

Not going to lie this band was pretty solidly good and kind of made me think of a more electronic Sonic Youth at times which isn't a bad thing at all and while some of their songs kind of sounded the exact same they were still pretty damn good and their song Peaches was pretty spectacular definitely a group to keep an eye out for.

 Melanie Martinez

I'm just going to get the one fault I had with this chick out of the way right now and say that I honestly after seeing her play live and getting to hear a little more of her songs I'm going to have to say that this chick REALLY sounds like she's taking quite a bit of her sound from one Kimbra who is an artist I've covered plenty of times on this blog and am very much a big fan of but even with that kind of souring her set a tiny bit there's still a load of positives I really have to give her.

While I was and am still not really a fan of her current EP that's out this chick is an incredibly solid performer  and she really can sing these kind of weird circusy sounding tunes very excellently and even with some technical difficulties she managed to hold up and give a very solidly good performance that sold me more whenever she started to do some of her more confident and quality tunes that she's saving for her upcoming album which I'm very much looking forward to give a listen to.

If this chick comes to your town hella go give her a view she wont dissapoint.

LIGHTS

It was rather disappointing that a good chunk of people left the show before this little Canadian pop artist got to perform because she's a pretty solid live act that gave a very high energy and entertaining set of songs that were a lot of big chorus' and danceable numbers that engaged a good bit of the crowd where I was standing quite a bit while also seemingly just throwing herself completely into her set and really did her best to show why she was the headliner and she did a very solidly good job at it.

Overall this show was pretty fucking great and the only real complaint if any is that the set's were very short and at times and some of the crowd was kind of less then spectacular but overall that's all minor because I'll be hella sure to come to the flying condom showcase again next year hopefully.

Thumbs up all over KC and here's a playlist of the bands that performed for all those interested in giving them a listen and of course make sure to go like and share The Official Facebook Page because you're awesome....