Retro Futurist‘s most recent signing, Caustic Casanova, rolled through town a couple weeks ago and delivered a scorching set of proggy, heavy, post punk at Hang Fire. Sex Jams, from Austria, was a welcome and surprising last minute add to the bill. Sunglow and Taze Daze, Hunter Jayne’s new solo project also provided support. How many bands is that boy in now anyway? Come to think of it, Sunglow’s Daniel is in several, too.
I was running a bit late, but caught the last two songs from Taze Daze. It was hard to quickly comprehend what all Hunter (from Wet Socks) was doing on stage, but it at least involved singing and playing guitar over some (I think) prerecorded beats. It will be interesting to see if he starts looping and building everything on stage. Anyway, the songs were there and the energy was good, so I’m looking forward to seeing where Taze Daze goes.
Next up was Caustic Casanova, a hard to pigeonhole rock trio out of the nation’s capital. They play a complex blend of post punk, almost metal, progressive, stoner rock, powerful psyche, I don’t know, let’s just call it heavy rock. Great set with interesting time changes and heavy grooves that I really dug. I was so impressed that I left with a double album in hand (recorded by J. Robbins and mastered by Bob Weston, how’s that for some indie rock mega credit?). With any luck the Retro Futurist ties will pay off with Savannah becoming a regular tour stop.
A few hours before the show the Facebook event page was updated to include Sex Jams, apparently their Athens show had been cancelled. It was getting late on a “school” night, but I decided to stick around to check out a song or two, I ended up staying for the whole set. As the band took the stage, I expected shoe gaze or maybe some female fronted new wave out of the five piece and the first minute or so seemed to confirm my suspicions, and then…….ROCK, glorious, sloppy, party punk rock with a European edge, whatever that means. Pretty damn fun stuff.
The info on my last pictures taken says it was almost 1:30 a.m. before the band even started breaking down, so I bailed out before Sunglow to catch a few hours of sleep before work. Totally worth a short night of shut eye.
More photos after the jump.
