Kind of Like Spitting / The Slight

Behold! The indie underground of Florida State University, with nearly 40 people clad in highwater denim and Get Up Kid tees, who, like totally love Dashboard and how emotional Chris is... it seems only fitting that both bands, The Slight and Kind of Like Spitting are “emotional” acoustic acts, much like Dashboard, but with two members each.

Tallahassee’s own The Slight, a neat boy/girl combo, play pleasant acoustic rock. The boy, who plays lead guitar, sings in a gentle, hushed voice which compliments his equally gentle melodic guitar riffs. While the girl, who plays occasional rhythm guitar, but mostly sticks to playing sparse Casio keyboard parts. The girl also sings harmonic backing vocals, but, probably would be better suited to handle lead vocals. The Slight’s show was rather laid back, laid back implying fairly boring, with both members seated and hardly moving, barely showing any signs of life. Their set consisted of about 8 originals, and plenty of onstage banter.

Kind of Like Spitting’s set was radically different from The Slight. Kind of Like Spitting were terribly energetic, nearly confrontational, even berating the audience for speaking and cellphone usage during songs. Kind of Like Spitting features two members, Ben, who plays guitar and sings lead, and David, who plays guitar and occasionally sings backing vocals. They were continually in motion, flailing legs like Beck or Jon Spencer, and even wrenching feedback out of their amplified acoustic guitars. At times, Kind of Like Spitting’s music is frenetic and jarring, resembling an acoustic At the Drive-In or Modest Mouse, and at other times, sweetly melodic. Singer Ben sounds very similar to labelmate Ben Gibbard, of Death Cab for Cutie, except screaming at the top of his lungs. Their set consisted of about 10 originals, and 3 Phil Ochs/1 Billy Bragg cover.

The Slight seemed a little more that background music for discussion of the club’s indie elite, while Kind of Like Spitting demanded their full attention. Kind of Like Spitting, from Portland Oregon, are simply a fantastic live act.