MusicRex/Denver

at Hi-Dive August 6th, 2007

Blitzen Trapper has received a lot of good press lately for an indie-rock band, including a short write-up in Rolling Stone. So it was somewhat surprising that they were the first of three bands to go on stage at the Hi-Dive, perhaps because the other two bands are on Barsuk Records and have been travelling together. Blitzen Trapper certainly showed why they have received so much attention, with a high-energy delivery and interesting rock songs filled with multiple layers of sounds.

Smoosh followed them on stage and the crowd was definitely in a wait-and-see mood. Smoosh is composed of two young sisters who released their first CD when they were 12 and 9. Now they are 15 and 12 and some of the novelty has worn off. It is still hard to get your head around such young musicians performing on stage and not being part of some marketing scheme to sell stuff to pre-teens.But Smoosh surprised me. They started off a bit nervous, but they often smiled at each other and seemed to gain confidence. Their younger sister (!!) came on and played bass for two songs during the set, but mostly it was the older Asya singing and playing keyboards and Chloe playing drums and singing backup.Their music comes from someplace different. They don’t yet have the experiences most of us do, yet they are able to write beautiful and original music. It is obvious that they work hard at their musicianship and they play better than many other bands I have seen on the same stage. Ultimately though, it was their music, not their virtuosity or the novelty that impressed me.

Aqueduct was up next and most of the crowd was ready and waiting for David Terry, who does all the work on the albums. Terry had a full supporting band and he was one of the happiest performers I have seen. He really enjoyed playing in front of a small but enthusiastic crowd. Aqueduct have a really full sound that deserves a much larger arena. We were lucky to see them there.