On official opening night I saw three bands in a row that made me think, for a time, that I had come to the right place for discovering some great new bands and music.  Well, the next day brought me back to a more prosaic reality, although I still believe this is a great event.  All the more reason, though, to single out these three bands and their performances.

The first video is from a group called ‘Quiet Parade’, who have been performing for a few years, and attracted at least a few superfans.  Some 10 or 15 bands later, I would consider them among the most promising I’ve seen.  The one thing I would have liked is the female vocal with a bit more volume in the mix, and that she’d have a bit more to do in the arrangements.  What I like about this group is that they have a strong lead guitarist, and good song writing skills.  The latter is what I believe separates the wheat from the chaff, and makes ‘Quiet Parade’ stand out from the crowd.

Immediately afterward I saw a testerone driven performance from ‘Rain over St. Ambrose’.  I remarked to someone that the music reminded me of ‘Kings of Leon’, which was met with the comment that ‘ROSA’ deserved a good deal more credit than that. Judge for yourself. (And I hope the guy on the end figures out what to do with his hair.)

And finally, the third performer to round out this trifecta was a singer named ‘Natalie Lynn’, featuring impressive vocal chops and a crack band that enjoy themselves immensely on stage.  The musical chemistry is excellent, and I might be inclined to refer to this as the ‘Natalie Lynn Band’ or ‘Natalie Lynn and the something something Band’.  In any case, they hopefully keep this going for a while.