Charlotte’s Identity Crisis Show Brings New Formats and New Fans

Originally Published Here: http://shutter16.com/wp/2011/10/30/show-review-charlottes-identity-crisis-show-brings-new-formats-and-new-fans/ Published Sunday, October 30, 2011 By amanda_caines. Under Editor : Amanda Caines, Photographer: Dianna Augustine, Salvador Deli, Show Review, Writer: Amanda Caines Tags: Amanda Caines, Charlotte Identity Crisis, Evelynn Rose, Grown Up Avenger Stuff, Hello Handshake, musical chairs, The Between, The Chelsea Daggers, The Jupiter Tide, The Spiveys To a veteran of the local music scene, there is little more exciting than hearing a local band you love covering another local band you love—and that’s exactly what happened Friday night at NoDa’s Salvador Deli. The event was the “Charlotte Identity Crisis,” which featured the bands of Charlotte in an ADHD-style lineup playing a little of their own music spiked with covers of other Charlotte local bands’ songs. The good news is there is a wealth of talent in the city to choose from. Grown Up Avenger Stuff Kicking off the night was Evelynn Rose, whose style brought listeners back to the mid-to-late nineties with their mellow-but-heavy rhythms with strong, melodic vocals. While they didn’t play any Charlotte-based covers, their music was genuine and even exciting at times. They were more of a last-minute addition to the bill to cover the departure of another band, however, and spent their time onstage promoting their “real” gig the following night. Regardless, their all-too-short set was very enjoyable. Grown Up Avenger Stuff From there on out, the short, 5-song set that Evelynn Rose performed seemed like Schindler’s List in comparison—length-wise, not content-wise, that is. Each band that followed got a grand total of two songs to rock out before the next band replaced them onstage. At first, it seemed like just a colossal cluster-fuck in stage transitions, but the increased crowd retention that resulted from catering to shrinking attention spans made all the trouble seem worth it. Having each band take the stage at least a couple times helped give fans an incentive to stick around and hear other bands when they might have otherwise been on their merry ways. Being a free show in the pedestrian-friendly NoDa district as well, the Identity Crisis was sure to bring in a bunch of passersby who, because of this format, heard more music than they might have with the traditional gig landscape. The ingenious use of a projector screen with the name of the current band on stage brought even better recognition for each band among intentional attendees and lucky drop-ins. The bands were not all completely thrilled at the musical-chairs-esque use of the stage, but the bustling crowd still around toward the end of the show was a fine reward. The six bands in this rockin’ revolver consisted of Grown Up Avenger Stuff, The Spiveys, The Jupiter Tide, The Chelsea Daggers, The Between, and Hello Handshake. For me, the highlight of the night was The Spiveys’ mostly straightforward take on Grown Up Avenger Stuff’s “As Mary Said,” a song that GUAS rarely plays anymore. I found myself almost giddy with excitement and purchased a download card of The Spivey’s “Let’s Panic” album immediately after their first set. The next best of the night was The Jupiter Tide’s rendition of The Chelsea Daggers’ tune. Evelynn Rose pleasantly surprised me by how much heavier their tunes sound in a live setting, too. I will refrain from my usual technical ticks and suffice it to say this was a groundbreaking, great idea, and I had an excellent time.