Last Friday, the Grizzly Rock hosted a variety of artists affiliated with Quote Your Pulse, an independent Californian record label. The show ran late but drew a sizeable, eager crowd.
The night opened with Alida McKeon. A solo act, McKeon alternated between ukulele and keys. Her voice both commanding and personable, she blended well into the Grizzly Rock’s lively atmosphere. McKeon’s performance was peppered with covers from varying artists, though with a unifying theme of love. She ended with a charming ukulele arrangement of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”
McKeon was followed by the Oakland group Mr. Kind. Only three of the band’s five members made it out to the show, but they never felt handicapped, even with the conspicuous absence of a drummer. Bassist Matt Roads and guitarist/vocalist Brian Bergeron did their best to make up for the lack of percussion; Roads smacked away at his upright bass while Bergeron added many a loud foot stomp. This all came together with Bergeron’s acoustic guitar and gave a slight folk twist to indie-rock group’s music, a sound further complemented with classic, bluesy solos by lead guitarist Geoff McCann.
Of Us Giants seemed to garner the most enthusiastic reactions by virtue of playing the most unapologetically young-people music. What they lacked in musicianship in comparison to the two previous bands they made up for in heavy distortion, loud choruses and frequent screaming by guitarist/vocalist Dustin Andrews (of Every Atlas fame).
A slight monotony had settled in during Of Us Giant’s performance, but was broken by their closing song, “Nova Scotia,” which featured longer-form songwriting. It began slowly, with only Andrews, and built up to the full band before finishing with just the guitars.
Stop Motion Poetry stole the show for me, perhaps unfairly, with a great cover of “Is This It?” by The Strokes. A few people had cleared out by the time they took the stage, but the band kept the house packed up until their set ended at half-past midnight. They fell somewhere in between the earlier performers, keeping things loud but melodic.
Clark Beggs (keys/vocals) and bassist Devin Beggs classed up their music with understated and flawless vocal harmonies that especially shined in their final song “Head Over Heels.”
The highlight of Stop Motion Poetry’s performance came in the form of a synchronized percussive outro. Clark Beggs pulled out the snare that had sat conspicuously under his keyboard like Chekov’s gun, and guitarist Jian Salcedo and Devin Beggs each took pieces Spencer Beggs’s drum set.
Turlock’s Grizzly Rock Café continues to bring in diverse artists, not necessarily leaning towards any specific genre. No one show is indicative of another, and we should all relish the opportunity to drink in the what the local and bay area scenes have to offer.