Nightmare Of You / Dearly Departed

Considering how Cure-influenced Nightmare of You really is, I suppose it made sense for rain to be pouring outside the day of their first show ever.

Orange Island opened things up. The New Englanders seemed to play their songs solid/tight, despite my unfamiliarity with any of their material, save for an MP3 here or there. I wasn't necessarily interested in their set, however, as it pretty much came off to me as the lead singer self-described it for the first half of their set - bar rock.

The last time I had seen Triple Crown's other ambassador of the day, As Tall As Lions, the band had given me midtempo but seemingly good, emotion-tinged rock. Of course, the last time I had seen them they were following Bandcamp. This time around, I basically stared off into space and wasn't quite enthralled. The lead singer's voice often hits pitches a bit high for my liking, and the overall feel is pretty energetic but not really *there*. It was essentially white noise in action.

But, Dearly Departed was following. I had heard from many sources just how solid this hardcore outfit was...so it should be a cool change, right? Wrong. My sources were dead wrong, as the closest thing the band played to said genre was post-hardcore. They played with only red lights illuminating them, and used a lot of swirling, environmental octaves that got real old real quick. They were very humble and seemed to have a good message, but every song sounded similar and just reminded me of one of the slowest tracks from This Day Forward's last album. 0-for-3 so far.

Finally, Nightmare of You took the stage. A friend overheard them talking a few minutes beforewards and told me, "they're really nervous." However, when each band member was settled in their spot, the ex-MovieLife guitarist Brandon Reilly soothingly waved his hand over his six-string and sung into the microphone, "Oh Meghan...is this thing of ours still on? For I haven't slept a wink since you have been gone..." and their short but sincerely sweet set began. Brandon said it was his first time singing, but he didn't seem like he was shaking in his boots. With only so many songs under NOY's belt due to their relatively short existence, they gave the crowd eight dark, driving tunes, all of which were sung along to, nodded to, tapped to, or swayed to. For those keeping score at home, Glassjaw guitarist Beck was playing drums for the band as well, a big change from his standard procedure.

So although the show as a whole rode the ass of medocrity, Nightmare of You surpassed my expectations for a band playing their first performance, even for a group of such veterans.

SET LIST
Nightmare of You
Yuengling
Untitled
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Crobin Played A Mean Joke On Me
No Capo Is Gonna Keep You Warm
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Untitled
Please Don't Answer Me
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The Killing Moon
I'd Dodge A Bullet For You