The No Control party last weekend at Hang Fire featured an incredibly varied lineup. With the low stage, the narrow bar on Whitaker Street gives fans the chance to get right up next to the music. Angel Bond, the CUSSES’s lead singer who is one of the No Control organizers, brought in some of her band’s stage lights, which gave me a chance to get a few shots.
I’ll present these in small sets with a few words about the bands — first Heyrocco, then DAMS, then Hudson K, then Fare the Gap. So there will be more photos and text after the jump.
Heyrocco, the evening’s headliner from Charleston, has a big following around Savannah from their multiple gigs here over the last couple of years. I don’t see many bands that I think have a combination of talent, drive, passion, creativity, and even the look to make it big, but Heyrocco is on my short list. I’m really excited for the upcoming album, which could vault them into much bigger rooms than Hang Fire. (Or not. The music business is plenty fickle.)
DAMS is a recently formed band out of Atlanta with huge potential. Given the size of the band, they moved mostly down in front of the stage, which meant no good photos of anyone except drummer Sarah Wilson. So maybe this makes up for all the times I’ve gotten good shots of lead singers but none of the drummers.
At times, DAMS had a pretty heavy sound as if they were about to stray into metal, and at other times the rock beat seemed about to slip into jamminess. It will be really interesting to see where they end up.
Hudson K is a duo (Christina Horn, Nate Barrett) of “electro-synth rock.” Horn’s commanding vocals and strong stage presence reminded me a little of Angel from CUSSES.
I’d been hearing some good words about the young band Fare the Gap — and wow I was impressed with their set on Saturday. Ryan Gillam and Rebekah Price were joined by drummer Alex Previty for this gig (he’s also bassist in Triathalon), and in this earlyish set at Hang Fire, they filled the space with a kind of orchestral pop with some beautiful variation. I suspect you’ll be reading more about Fare the Gap on this blog again soon. They’re finishing up a Kickstarter campaign by more than doubling their original goal.
And what a great look.
