The police cruiser slowed down near
Backstage and turned the corner of 20th and ‘M’. An officer waved to some of the youth as large groups of young people packed the sidewalk. The car then sped off and I went inside.
I’d already missed Nicholas Allen perform by the time I got to the show.
Far Country, a local Bakersfield/Azusa band performing with Alex Mitts at guitar were hard into a set.
From what I gathered, it was a farewell show of sorts for a band with only one true member, Kyle Neal.
Far Country
Their music had strong pop appeal. Kyle seemed to love to talk to the audience. Similar to the time I saw his other band,
Courage Overdue at the now defunct Station 3:16 in downtown Bakersfield.
He talked about love. He sang an acoustic number. And during the final two songs of the set I was finally hooked on the band.
It was Alex Mitts guitar work. Sure, the band as a whole had gelled for me toward their final rock hurrahs of the evening. Kyle has a decent pop-sounding voice. But there came shredding melodic riffs that pulled me close to the stage. I had to snap photos of Mitts with his paws in pure form.
Alex Mitts
Afterwards I stood outside and Kyle Neal walked up to me and thanked me for coming to the show. He politely corrected me when I thought his other band had a different name.
I think he, like Sarah from Backstage, was surprised at such a large crowd turnout. Sarah is bubbly, cute and a big fan of music. According to her, she’s banned from attending shows at Jerry’s Pizza. That to me sounds like some kind of weird music scene turf war. If true, that would be just another indicator that downtown Bakersfield music fans to some venues are often thought of as cattle that should be herded into one venue rather than another.
I don’t really get venue politics and scenes within scenes. Just hold shows and promote them. Who cares if there are other venues in town? Multiple venues make for a ripe scene.
Friday night, the fans just poured into the Bakersfield music scene at Backstage. From where? This was definitely another Bakersfield music scene offshoot, with bands sharing members, fans and compliments. And somehow, these bands got the word out.(There's a
Blueprint Record connection. Can you figure it out?)
The Seasons Fight was another local band who I have seen members perform. One of the last times I’d seen Nicholas Allen, he wore a big cape. Now he performed keyboards for Seasons Fight. Waving his arms in the air, open-mouthed at times, he head-banged, and even went cross-eyed when he hit certain high vibrato notes. He was really into his keyboard performance that made for some rather big-time blizzardy dramatics.
Seasons Fight keyboardist about to eat the audience. Arrummmph!
If anthemesque is a word, that’s what I’d call their music. Some of their intros were bigger than the stage.
Although I laughed at some of Sean Kimberlin’s jokes before the band performed, I wanted them to get to the music portion. Loud and silly when he spoke, he was quiet when he sung.
There was some good music amid the over-dramatics—which the fans loved and cheered for. Like I said, everyone supported everyone in this sub-scene of friends, bands and music.
The night was also a CD release for the final band, Intruder Alert. That’s why I came. If not for Jarod Palmer politely nudging me to attend at least a month in advance, I would not have even showed. Not that I don’t like the Bakersfield music scene. But with a job shift to ABC 23 and working on my own novel, I’ve been distant from the Bakersfield underground.
Intruder Alert
I felt compelled to see what this kid and his music were all about.
A keyboard-driven techno band with a guest drummer, Intruder Alert’s music is a post-modern blend of 90s techno spirit, an 80s video game style name, and over-synthed vocal styles from today’s leading dance-pop music.
I’ll admit right now that during part of the 1990s I listened to far too much techno, having gotten bored with the overbearing grunge movement. While I worked, techno music and all its often keyboard-laden compositions made for great inspirational music.
Technical difficulties... problem solved.
A smiling young performer in his first show ever, Palmer’s Intruder Alert fell into a few difficulties. “This iPod sucks!” Jarod said working through one brief lull.
Partly inspired by Lost Ocean, you can hear similar pop keyboard sounds, minus the full band’s melodic vocals and atmospheric guitars.
The mostly solo style of Intruder Alert made for an interesting scene moment: further support in an alternative indie scene heavy on pop keyboards and pop vocals.
Is Bakersfield metal on its way out? I don’t know. I’m not in the scene enough to even tell.
My favorite song of the Intruder Alert was actually the repetitious music box quality of “The Memory Could Not Be Read,” a song that is whimsically sad and robotic, with buzzing gears in the background, a bit mesmerizing, and used a different vocal tactic. Palmer’s spoken word bit at the end was a refreshing change from other songs’ vocal effects. It would have been fitting to use during the rest of the set's more dancy numbers.
The overblown pop vocal effects on his other songs should have been turned off while he spoke to the audience, and only used in one song. I wanted to hear Palmer sing, not sound completely robotronic.
Thank goodness “The Memory Could Not Be Read” seemed to have been extended because of technical difficulties. I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s a moving song that you can listen to on the
Intruder Alert Myspace.
Palmer’s gleefulness of singing for peers, friends, and at a packed house was fun to watch. You have to be excited for young performers getting out into the scene with new music, CDs and shirts.
A bit too expensive ($15 dollars!), I bought a shirt and can now consider myself a fan and glad to be in touch with some techno roots again because of the retro techno appeal of Intruder Alert.
At the end of the night some of the youth lit fireworks on a sidewalk. A cone shot sparks in a fountain of color, while a couple young girls waved sparklers around as if celebrating the techno-happy music of Intruder Alert coming to a celebratory end.
Labels: Bakersfield music scene, Intruder Alert, Jarod Palmer, keyboards, Lost Ocean
