with Rocking Horse Winner, Hopesfall and One Line Drawing
February 27, 2003
First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia PA
The First Unitarian church is a tiny venue in Philadelphia that holds an estimated 200-300 people. R5 Productions hosts shows at the church regularly and is one of the best place to see original indie acts in the city. This sounds great on paper but comes at a cost; waiting outside 45 minutes after the show was supposed to start and a bad music mix at times, for intance.
Opening band The Rocking Horse Winner had a flawless mix, and the singer’s voice came over just as clear as you’d expect. The keyboard’s implementation was as another guitar, and added a great deal to the drive of the songs.
Hopesfall played to a single blue light, illuminating the stage in an eerie glow and creating silloutes of their bodies dancing around the stage. Besides various guitar intriacies, Hopesfall struck me as a typical hardcore band.
Solo act One Line Drawing opened with singer/guitar player Jonah on stage playing guitar along to pre-recorded techno drums. His songs were heartfelt and true. He even played an acoustic version of “Lukewarm”, which was orignally recorded with his band New End Original. During one of his conversations with us he read a comic from the book “Get Your War On” and shared his view on the upcoming war with Iraq. Jonah also related that “love and friends are a lot like business. If you look for a hot new thing you’ll get a piece of shit.” Concertgoer Doug Rahn said “I feel as though if he had only played two songs I would’ve gotten my money’s worth.” His voice sounded exactly on key and each note was beautifully sustained despite him playing guitar at the same time. Coheed and Cambria’s lead singer Claudio Sanchez had a more difficult time mastering both at the same time, however.
Coheed and Cambria had technical difficulties that were eventually fixed, but the way the guitars were mixed felt especially empty. The lead singer also played guitar, and wasn’t very talkative or enthuastic with either his play or his singing. They treated us to a new song, which was good although not a big step away from their previous release “The Second Stage Turbine Blade”.
All in all four good performances at a cool intimate venue with the One Line Drawing being the obvious standout .
Coheed and Cambria
