Weekend of local rock volume 17

Nov 15, 2008

The election is over and the local rock has returned!

My weekend started a little earlier than most because this date was the second in what promises to be a great series of off-season shows at the Steer Inn over in Ocean Pines called "Three for Free." Naturally local rock patron Skip Dixxon has a hand in putting this together, so each Thursday night there's three good local musicians or bands getting an opportunity to play for the people - and you can't beat the price. This most recent Thursday brought a great bill of veteran and rookie acts: solo guitarist Nate Clendenin, the debut of a new band called Of You, and my good friends from Semiblind rounding things out.

This will be a fairly short teaser post here; more pictures and text are up on the monoblogue Myspace site. (If the link doesn't work, just click on the blog. You can check out the much-expanded musical selections there too, all from local or regional acts.)

Let's begin with Nate Clendenin, who did this show as an acoustic solo act.

The acoustic solo sounds of guitarist Nate Clendenin began the evening. In a future 'Three for Free' show he'll have his band and plug things in. It also serves as a handy reminder of Sunday specials at the Steer Inn. Wonder if they'll buy me a drink next time I show up for not cropping the plug out of the picture?

It appears from the three scheduled so far that the 'Three for Free' shows will begin with an acoustic act. In this case Nate did a mix of originals and covers; most pleasing to the audience was the older Grateful Dead song he made over.

Next up were the youngsters in Of You. They're a four-piece band, with the singer doubling as a guitarist.

Of You made a solid debut on the scene with this show. Who knows, maybe this picture would be like the rookie card of a future Hall-of-Famer.

I gave Of You a second picture just to prove there was a drummer back there. This was taken toward the end of the show, by this point they were jamming in a fine manner and I think whatever nerves they may have had to start were gone.

This was their debut show, so naturally they weren't perfect. But I thought they passed the audition with flying colors, playing a number of fairly recent covers. They even had a little assistance from the host on one song.

Skip Dixxon sat in on the drums for one song. Fortunately, the gentleman in the white shirt didn't attempt to help out - he certainly enjoyed the proceedings but I'm not sure how much he'll recall of them. By the way, Skip brought the drum set so can you tell he's a KISS fan?

Of You brought a lot of energy to the stage, and turned out to be a fine warmup for my good friends from up Millsboro way.

As is often the case, they played mostly cover songs but did toss in a trio of originals out of the ten or so they performed, including a more uptempo version of one of my favorites, "Ocean Meets The Sky."

I took this shot standing by the bar, so it's a drinkers-eye perspective of the band. Normally I sit quite a bit closer.

There's more pics of all three bands on the monoblogue Myspace page, which I'll do shortly after this post. Tomorrow I'm back to my usual political commentary and news again, but don't be surprised to find a number of WLR volumes over the next few months as the local music scene percolates through the winter. The date for Skip's "12 Bands of Christmas" has already been announced (Saturday, December 27th) and I already know that Semiblind will be in the house! And so will (among others) Lower Class Citizens, Skitzo Calypso, and lower case blues. Should be a damn fine show.

Closer on the horizon is a Battle of the Bands sponsored in large part by the gang at Delmarvanightlife.com next weekend at Brew River...just might have to stop by and check that out too. It should be a great week for music since the Staind/Seether/Papa Roach show is Wednesday night.

Weekend of local rock volume 17

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