It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

Hunter S. Thompson
geeks - gotta love them

RSS Feed


Designed by:
Kaptivating Kate at Dewey's Roadhouse PDF Print E-mail
Written by John Abbott   
Sunday, 16 January 2011 04:17

Kaptivating Kate on stage at Dewey's Roadhouse, January 2011


It is five below zero, a perfect night to stay home, stay in, and stay warm. But instead I am out to see some metal. Dewey's Roadhouse is playing host to Kaptivating Kate, with special guest Silenize for a night of heavy metal rock. Its one of those, only in Wisconsin, moments when we piled out of the house. The Wife's pleather threatening to crack, snow squeaking under our shoes, we got in the stiff and cold mini-van for the short trip to Deweys. The crowd was small, but the time was good. I was happy to have gotten out!



You might have noticed, I haven't been writing much. There have been a host of homeowner issues over the past month that I have been dealing with. Sadly, I have spent my free time soldering pipes rather than listening to bands. Hopefully things are stabilized now to the point where we can begin to have a life again.

I wanted to like Kaptivating Kate. I really did. Three chicks up front, with guitars?! That shit's badass! Beauty too! I am thinking every warm blooded male in the house wanted to love Captivating Kate. But musically, I am not so sure. It was like the band was less than a sum of its parts. I can't really figure it out.

Hannah Stage playing bass with the band Kaptivating Kate at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
Hannah Stage playing bass with the band Kaptivating Kate at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
Britt Thays on lead vocals had a powerful voice. Her lyrics were maybe a bit muddy at times, and the lyrics tended to be sung in discord -- Which though a valid musical style, tends to usually be something I don't like. So throw in that personal bias as you read. She seemed very in-tune, and well timed. She had a fantastically powerful heavy metal roar. A roar that was almost quite shocking coming from such a beautiful woman. But with the muddiness of the vocals, and discord, I didn't really care much for the music.

On guitar, Beck Pierce played some great, if short, little solos. They were not always perfect, but for the most part, excepting a few tempo stumbles, they were in tune, on key and well done. It made for a really nice bluesy sound. The beautiful Hannah Stage was on bass. Though she assured us otherwise before she started playing, the bass was overly loud. You had to cover your drink because of the particles falling from the suspended ceiling. It was like snow, timed to the bass riff. The EPA person in me asking myself, those aren't old enough to be asbestos ceiling tiles are they?

Britt Thays sings vocals for the band Kaptivating Kate. On stage at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
Britt Thays sings vocals for the band Kaptivating Kate. On stage at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
The long and the short of it is though, is I didn't really like Kaptivating Kate all that much. I felt like there was a huge amount of talent on the stage, that just never really pulled together for me. There was never any real fire. I don't think it was just me either. The audience thinned as the night went on. There were a couple of songs where there were only about three people clapping at the end. One of them the rest of the audience was just standing there in mute silence. …Which I gotta admit, confused me as much as it did the band. Was Kaptivating Kate just having a bad night? Was the sometimes zombie like action of the audience rubbing off? Yeah, it sure could be. If it works out I will gladly hear them again. Its not like I thought them so bad I would dash out and hang with the smokers if they happen to come on stage somewhere I was at. But, I am very sorry to say I was underwhelmed.

Silenize at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
The band Silenize on stage at Deweys Roadhouse January 2011
Warming up for Kate was the Eau Claire band, Silenize. We were late getting to Dewey's Roadhouse, for reasons The Wife would rather not have me continually bring up. So we only caught the last seven or so songs. Amazing! I have seen these guys once before warming for a show at Every Buddy's Bar in Chippewa Falls. I love these guys! Headbanging, screaming heavy metal. After last night's show I am feeling them nudge out No Loving Place for my title of favorite Chippewa Valley heavy metal band. Silenize played what I feel was a perfect show. The song I video taped -- good for me, too bad for you, I feel was actually on the weaker end of the spectrum of what they played. I got to hear the really great stuff! To begin with, I really like the style of music they play. I compared them before to the band Five Finger Death Punch, where there is varity within their songs. It isn't just screaming. Their music is a mix of soft and hard. Slow melodies broken up by hard, roaring, headbanging heavy metal rock and roll. If you are into the genre, Silenize should be on your short list of bands to see. Love, love, love it!
Seth Renz sings for Silenize on stage at Deweys Roadhouse January 2010
Seth Renz sings for Silenize on stage at Deweys Roadhouse January 2010


Kaptivating Kate has a MySpace page here: http://www.myspace.com/kaptivatingkate
And, Silenize is here on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/silenize

 

.

viewVideo

 

Kaptivating Kate on stage at Dewey's Roadhouse.
Kaptivating Kate, again on stage at Dewey's Roadhouse
Silenize warms up at Deweys
Hits: 544

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

smaller | bigger

busy
< Prev   Next >
Last Updated on Sunday, 23 January 2011 03:47