Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves: Water Landing, the All Togethers, the Psyatics at the Double Down, Saturday July 21, 2018

I'm not getting out as often these days for various reasons, but had a free Saturday and this line-up was too cool to pass up!

In order to stay up, though, I took a nap and missed the opening Phillsy Phillz, which is a new project from Eric of Water Landing with his mom! Sorry that I couldn't see that! Got in as Water Landing was rockin' in their quirky, almost Violent Femmes-kinda way and was almost immediately accosted by Eric as I was trying to get my camera to work! The band was tight'n'rockin' this eve with Ron sound especially good'n'snappy on the drums and lockin' in with Daniel's strong bass lines. Eric was animated as always, the crowd was up'n'dancin' (especially on their funky take on "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" with Jules singing, which got the All Togethers on the dance floor), Eric pulled out an electric mandolin for one song and overall, the crowd loved 'em.

It had been a while since I was able to catch one of my fave acoustic acts, the All Togethers, but they sounded great here despite some technical issues (four acoustic instruments can be tricky going through a PA). I love their four part vocal harmonies and the instruments work together with lots of dynamics and variety, with Brenna's cello taking a majority of the solos and giving the band a unique sound. Michael sang lead on his own jazzy "Sonata In Whiskey", Cindy took over for some modern rap song that the audience knew but went over my head ("Push It Good", maybe?) which segued into the finale "Hangover Stomp" with Ken finishing up on this ode to the morning after.

As it happens all too often at the Double Down, the Psyatics played clean-up, but it wasn't a super late night, comparatively, anyway! The crowd hung in for them and were treated to a long set of excellent originals from their four albums ("Bourbon Sway", "Evangeline", "Famous Monsters", "Shake Them Bones") and cool covers from the Banana Splits, Pink Floyd, the Hives, and the Drags. Jack was all over the club (despite having a relatively short cord - dunno how he does it!), Mark was excellent'n'creative on drums, as usual, and Rob's careening bass lines drove the songs as he howled'n'crooned over the chaos. Of course, the lovely Ivana Blaize once again added extra visual accompaniment, as well. By the time it hit 3:00 am, I had to split as Jack turned in his usual Gretsch for a Telecaster for the last few songs. Great time, as usual!