You should keep an eye on this Casi girl....

So I do my best to support local music to the best of my ability today a singer I've taken the time to cover in the past one Casi Joy recently did a little hometown gig and since it wasn't more then ten minutes from my house I figured I'd go because you know its good to support those who do their best to give you something worth supporting.

Although before I get to talking about the show I'd like to make note that I'm not a country person for the most part but I will say that there are plenty of talented individuals and good songs in the genre and if you're looking for a really solid country pop sounding affair you'd do good to check this chick out

The show was a small affair mostly consisting of covers with a few originals sprinkled in and it's the originals that I'd highlight as really being the best part of this show because if you really want a feel for someone you have to hear songs they specifically made for their own voice and in this instance songs like her soft crooner, “Kiss You In White,” and “Keep Dancin'” really do her justice and show you that she's an artist doing her best to really make you feel the songs she's singing and in an acoustic setting the songs really take on a whole dimension compared to the album cuts which are very well done if not a bit on the well produced side.

Her album is a pretty solidly straightforward affair by the way with the opening track, “Filling My Closet,” being a pretty bad ass cut in all honesty on record and especially when played live and if you are into modern country but want an artist that's not really more pop then country you really can't go bad with her.

Overall this show was good and I'm most certainly going to keep a lookout for her coming back to my neck of the woods especially whenever she get's to doing sets of nothing but originals.

Sam Reviews a Show: The Homegrown Buzz Showcase

So I was at a show the other night and it was a bit of a showcasing of some of Kansa City’s finest local music acts thrown by local alternative station 96.5 the Buzz and it was a pretty good time people and I figured I can take the 30 seconds to inform you guy’s of some acts that you should be on the lookout for if they’re having a show near you.

The Greeting Committee

So here we have a group of some young kids or at the very least I think they looked young as hell that are making music that’s not honestly the most original thing you’ve ever heard but even if it’s not completely breaking the mold it’s done DAMN well and their set was very tight, energetic, and hella fun to see because they just put all their efforts into making all the people there want to listen and the songs were solidly good especially their closer a lovely little love song by the name of Hands Down which in and of itself may be the best Modern Love song to of been made and I can only hope that it breaks them or at the very least ends up being put into some cheesy but lovely little date flick but really this group kicks ass and hopefully the rest of the country picks up on them soon.

  

Hembree

I had the pleasure of talking to some of the members of this band before and after the show and realized that I’ve actually seen them before at one of the other free shows that get thrown on by the Buzz and while the first time I remember they had to deal with Opening band Syndrome they do a really REALLY fun cover of Dare by the Gorillaz which I pointed out and they added to their set because yeah it was bad ass, but covers aside this time around they really seemed to of tightened up their sound since the last time I saw them and I found myself really digging their groovy sound and how there’s a natural feeling to their performance and of course they also looked like they were having a hell of a time.

This band really is composed of some cool dudes and if you get to see them you really should they’re quite fun.

 

Outsides

So these guys were the headliner of the nights festivities and they were yet another unfortunate case of the opening band syndrome when I saw them at The Night the Buzz Stole Christmas but I actually do have their album downloaded onto my computer because when I saw them they gave out free download codes to get the record and in all honesty it’s a pretty solidly 80’s new wavey sounding record with some solid stuff but there’s also a pretty big jump in quality once you see them performing the songs live because kind of like Hembree these guy’s got extra tighter since the last time I saw them and they looked like they were both having the best time ever and really wanted to put on a show that left people wanting more it was a tight collection of New Wave sounding numbers that were energetic and quite fun with a couple of newer songs thrown in to showcase some solid work and of course they did a cover of Toto’s Africa which was FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

These guy’s really have done something good and their song Just Curious is actually quite a bad ass little tune that is kind of a dreamy Depeche Mode meets INXS sounding number that really capped off their set before a solid encore.

 

Kansas City has some fine music coming out of it people and these are just a few acts that decided to go out and really show us what they’re made of and I think every one of them could do something and if you can you totally need to see them.

Sam Reviews a Show: The Smashing Pumpkins Live in Kansas City 6/22/15

So last night I got to see The Smashing Pumpkins at the Midland here in Kansas City for their Plain Songs acoustic-electric shows they've been doing as a warm up before the End of Times tour with Marilyn Manson and I'm not going to lie it was a pretty fucking spectacular time people and sadly enough I don't have any pictures of the show because of a combination of having a pretty ghetto phone and the fact that Senor Corgan and company didn't want people to be taking a bunch of pictures which didn't stop some people from trying it just stopped me so I could enjoy the amazement.

Although I will make note that there was an opening act on this show in the form of a singer song writter known as Katie Cole that actually did a pretty damn good job opening even though there wasn't hardly anyone at the venue up until the pumpkins set but still props for her and when she joined them onstage later in the night to sing along and even do the majority of vocal duties for a very VERY AMAZING rendition of Stand Inside Your Love there was a bit of a heart glow around her.

So all that aside Plainsong for those who aren't aware is a series of Acoustic shows that Billy Corgan seems to be throwing as both a means of warming up for his upcomming tour and of course kind of testing out some newish material and updated versions of Live only tracks he's been playing since around 2009, like 99 Floors which has shaped up into a very noteworthy tune in it's own right, also these shows are very heavy in Adore era cuts and various other album cuts like The Crying Tree of Mercury from their MACHINA effort.

Overall there was an increadibly relaxed tone to the whole show that really didn't have a full band at any point but rather Billy and Jeff Schroder with a Drum machine which in all honesty kind of harks back to the bands beginnings back in 1988 and also this was probably the most loose I've ever seen Billy Perform because when I saw them the last two times he was very tight in his playing and kind of straight faced and rapid fire through each song and this time around he was walking around, interacting with the crowd( with a really funny gesture during Run2Me), and overall just kind of taking this show as him wanting to and having a great time and it showed because even when Ava Adore's track fucked up and accidentally playing over again he just kind of said fuck it and restarted the song and let the crowd have a better chance to sing along.

The Setlist for this show was as I said earlier REALLY heavy in Adore cuts which I'm not going to complain about one bit because they played all my favorite songs from that album and honestly almost made me cry when they got to For Martha which was heartwreanchingly amazing and the acoustic renditions of the staple hits and pumpkins tracks where also spectacular as well with a serious highlight to Tonight, Tonight which was probably the best opening to any show I've ever seen in my entire life period.

So yeah this was a night for Pumpkins fans, filled with Pumpkins fans, and sure to be enjoyed by all pumpkins fans and I was more then glad I got to be there because it was worth every penny and I'd love for Billy Corgan and company to do more of these types of intimate evening type shows because their amazing also I'd like to see that Katie Cole chick go on to bigger things because she's a pretty charming act or at the very least maybe become a permanent member....just saying she fit in pretty well...but all things aside one huge recommendation from me and if this video from one of the earlier shows doesn't convince you then well..thanks for hopefully letting me get a closer ticket for the next show..

Sam Reviews a Show: Buzz Beachball 2014

So I went to a show a few day's ago and rather than immedietly coming up with a review the very next day I figured I'd take a few day's to kind of digest things and write about more what stuck out a few day's later and of course you know get over that convert haze we all have.

So this years Buzz Beachball was heald at Sporting KC over in Kansas and annoyingly enough it was raining the beginning of the day which combined with the hangover I happen to be nursing sucked balls people, but all those complaints aside there was some good thing's at the beginning of the day namely the Griswolds High energy performance to open the whole show which was like a good mix of INXS and most modern day indie acts which was good because they were fun as hell and got the show off to a good start.

After their set though that's when it started raining and because of that it was fairly easy to skip over Broods set which was a bit better compared to their prom set but they've still yet to sell me and from what i can remember the next act I actually watched was J. Roddy Walston and the Business who were a kind of Bluesy rock and roll act that actually do a very solid set but honestly felt a bit out of place because their music doesn't really feel alternative in a sense of what's to be expected from the vast majority of bands on the bill but they still held their own and did a great job.

So by the time the Mowglis hit the stage my hangover was starting to let up and from the small bits of their set I was able to catch they got a bad ass and Highly energetic performance of San Fransisco that was the perfect way to introduce the good weather and string of amazing performances to come.

Before I get to into things I will say that I didn't much care for how they organized the performances of this show by having the second stage perform during the main stage's set ups because I missed Meg Myers set due to the fact that she got the 30 minutes after Weezer and before the Arctic Monkeys which I didn't care to lose for getting an piss poor spot to see her again but form what I heard from her set she killed it.

OK now let's quit fucking around and get to the meat of the matter people the big 3 and first up was the 1975 who were fucking BAD ASS PEOPLE! They had a very solid tightly played set that was filled with all the strongest cuts from their album and tunes like Heart Out and M.O.N.E.Y. are strong when placed amongst hits like Sex and Girls which all sounded like the best New Wave record to not come out of the 80's. I'd definitely make an effort to see them again.

After them was the all mighty Weezer people and while I will admit some fault to the fact that their entire set list was nothing but hits and they noticeably didn't perform anything from Pinkerton which was minor in the grander scale of things because their set BLEW ME THE FUCK AWAY PEOPLE! Seriously Rivers Cumo and company where one of the tightest most well rounded group of performers I've had the pleasure of seeing live since The Smashing Pumpkins. They admittedly were a bit more straightforward but that didn't take away from the fact that the string of hits that they powered through didn't kick ass.

From the Woah-oh's of Perfect situation to the crowd chanting rumblings of Beverly Hills to the epic conclusion of Buddy Holly their entire set was a big string of awesomeness that was sure to satisfy everyone and reminded me just why in the hell I ever got into them because their songs are that fucking good, and that could have perfectly ended the whole damn show but they didn't and oh buddy did the act that followed just show why they did.

So I have to tell you guy's that with the opening chords of Do I wanna Know I was immediately slapped in the face with the overwhelming scent of wet pussy and marijuana and the fact that that was just the opening song kind of perfectly summed up what I was in for from the tour de force that was the all mighty Arctic Monkeys. In-between a large collective of women who were very vocal about their desire to start stripping and running to go attack one handsome fucking front man and the pairs of undergarments getting thrown at the stage this show was a trip people.

I can't lie I'm not really a convert and going in I wasn't and still am not the most familiar with this bands impressive catalog of material but they more then justified the fact that they closed this bitch out with a set that was just a mastered blend of progressive thinking numbers that expressed a large amount of tight musicianship and effort that was seemingly as if they just oozed showmanship. They without a doubt where a group of individuals that just left no doubt as to their expertise in what they do and completely and utterly impressed me in every way with just how well they not only made very progressive sounding numbers and could occasionally fucking pound you with rockers like I bet You look Good on the dancefloor which was just the bee's knees for me people because I loved their faster paced moments of musicianship and would of liked to see more but that's minor because they hit every hit I wanted and it was impressive and more then showed they deserved to close that bitch out.

Overall beachball was amazing people and all minor complaints I have towards the scheduling of performances can be considered minor because the quality of performances I got to see was worth it all and I can't wait to see if they can maintain this next year.

Below is a playlist of some of the acts listen and enjoy....