Last night the Movies and Pop tour played at the Old Rock House. Making a stop on their westbound tour, the three-course bill consisted of Me, the Machine; The Soundtrack; and Yearling.
As I walked in at 9:30pm, Me, the Machine was mid-set. I gathered comments like “These guys are f---ing hilarious,” and “I did not think they would sound like this.” Very true statements, indeed. The three-piece from Florida consist of Joshua Hull, Mat Musto, and Barry McMahon is very Steve-Carrell, dry humored—on top of knowing how to play their instruments. I only caught the last two songs but I was very impressed by the toe-tapping rhythm they gave me in my whole 15 minutes of seeing them. Up next was The Soundtrack: fronted by Rachael Petit, followed by Dylan Wahlstrom, Pat Cash, Shaan Singh and Dan LaCasse. I was stoked to see this group live. In my research on the Movies and Pop tour I found myself getting the same great feeling I have when I listen to Paramore, No Doubt or The Distillers—just a very empowering, female-pride consistency in my jawbone that keeps me smiling the whole time I see a chick doing her thing with a bunch of dudes backing her up. Amazing. The Soundtrack killed it with their fun-loving attitude on stage and very cool, confident glow from the lime-light. In my opinion, they stole the show, and the tour. Yearling closed the show—headlining the tour. I still tried to pick out the parts of Sid Menon, coming from his old metal roots in Glass Casket, and tried to see where they have gone with enduring this pop-punk quartet. The answer was simple: there is still a deep-rooted, pain-staking disclaimer at the end of each syllable he sang. The only empty-clammer that metal music can relay, this band is testing out “happy hardcore metal.” Mike on drums adds harmony to Sid’s vocals with heavy rhythm and bass from Tony and Ryan on guitar.
After getting off stage, I started talking to the band members about how the tour was going. Dylan from the Soundtrack expressed how supportive his family has been, and how it’s been one show after the other with mixed crowds and venues. “I really like your place. Some places have been opened for years and they still don’t get it.” Josh the merch guy stated to me after I told him how young of a place we still are. Rachael explained how being the only girl on the tour isn’t as bad as the ratio makes it seem. Being an eleven to one ratio boys to girl is hard to fathom: all those inside jokes, stinky clothes and sharing of hair products with a bunch of dudes might have killed me by the end of the tour, but she differs. “We are all like brothers in this tour. We all just met like four days ago, and we have our differences but we work through them like family—its actually a lot of fun.”
Shaan let me in on some of the games they play on the road. “There is this one game we have, where no matter where you are, if you get hit with someone throwing up the goggles at you—and you don’t block it, you have to lay down…no matter where you are.” He goes on to show me the sign language of this game, and told me I am now involved with the joke…and of course, like the novice I am at the game…I had to lie down on the main floor of the Old Rock House because I wasn’t quick enough to block the goggles from him.
Overall, this was an excellent show. Girls adoring Mat from Me, the Machine by wearing shirts with his name on them...to escorting the boys from the Soundtrack to the bathroom in our office so they could flat-iron their hair—this was definitely one tour I hope comes back through.
As I walked in at 9:30pm, Me, the Machine was mid-set. I gathered comments like “These guys are f---ing hilarious,” and “I did not think they would sound like this.” Very true statements, indeed. The three-piece from Florida consist of Joshua Hull, Mat Musto, and Barry McMahon is very Steve-Carrell, dry humored—on top of knowing how to play their instruments. I only caught the last two songs but I was very impressed by the toe-tapping rhythm they gave me in my whole 15 minutes of seeing them. Up next was The Soundtrack: fronted by Rachael Petit, followed by Dylan Wahlstrom, Pat Cash, Shaan Singh and Dan LaCasse. I was stoked to see this group live. In my research on the Movies and Pop tour I found myself getting the same great feeling I have when I listen to Paramore, No Doubt or The Distillers—just a very empowering, female-pride consistency in my jawbone that keeps me smiling the whole time I see a chick doing her thing with a bunch of dudes backing her up. Amazing. The Soundtrack killed it with their fun-loving attitude on stage and very cool, confident glow from the lime-light. In my opinion, they stole the show, and the tour. Yearling closed the show—headlining the tour. I still tried to pick out the parts of Sid Menon, coming from his old metal roots in Glass Casket, and tried to see where they have gone with enduring this pop-punk quartet. The answer was simple: there is still a deep-rooted, pain-staking disclaimer at the end of each syllable he sang. The only empty-clammer that metal music can relay, this band is testing out “happy hardcore metal.” Mike on drums adds harmony to Sid’s vocals with heavy rhythm and bass from Tony and Ryan on guitar.
After getting off stage, I started talking to the band members about how the tour was going. Dylan from the Soundtrack expressed how supportive his family has been, and how it’s been one show after the other with mixed crowds and venues. “I really like your place. Some places have been opened for years and they still don’t get it.” Josh the merch guy stated to me after I told him how young of a place we still are. Rachael explained how being the only girl on the tour isn’t as bad as the ratio makes it seem. Being an eleven to one ratio boys to girl is hard to fathom: all those inside jokes, stinky clothes and sharing of hair products with a bunch of dudes might have killed me by the end of the tour, but she differs. “We are all like brothers in this tour. We all just met like four days ago, and we have our differences but we work through them like family—its actually a lot of fun.”
Shaan let me in on some of the games they play on the road. “There is this one game we have, where no matter where you are, if you get hit with someone throwing up the goggles at you—and you don’t block it, you have to lay down…no matter where you are.” He goes on to show me the sign language of this game, and told me I am now involved with the joke…and of course, like the novice I am at the game…I had to lie down on the main floor of the Old Rock House because I wasn’t quick enough to block the goggles from him.
Overall, this was an excellent show. Girls adoring Mat from Me, the Machine by wearing shirts with his name on them...to escorting the boys from the Soundtrack to the bathroom in our office so they could flat-iron their hair—this was definitely one tour I hope comes back through.
