Speaking from experience, whenever planning to see an adorable straggly-haired boy band, expect pre-pubescent tweens to line up by the hoard, with their parents in tow by the bar. Example--Rooney, a fab-five band from surfing California, whose biggest musical influence is probably their resident state. Attracting squeaky-voiced girls and boys (or were they girls?) alike, Rooney is probably as poppy sounding as I'm willing to admit as good music. Oh, and they're for real good but just suffer from an insufferably young audience and fan base.
Rooney's concert was at The Sonar Club, which completes my tour of hipster venues around the Baltimore/D.C. metropolitan area. It's about as big as the Black Cat, short stage with a one-story room and bar in the back. I personally liked Ram's Head better, which is where they played in June 2008, but neither is a 930 Club. The room was about half-full, which is really unfortunate because Rooney is a quality band. Instead of being filled with the usual 75% twenty-something college hipsters, the audience was probably 90% girls and of that, 90% under the age of 18.
The first opener was the Crash Kings, who were pretty legit. I've never heard of them, but their music is a little darker, edgier and certainly not as young and poppy. I thought they had real potential as a debuting band, with a groove to the music. Interestingly enough, instead of a guitarist, the lead singer played a piano that he could make vibrate. It was really odd--I can only compare it to a Guitar Hero guitar, the thing used to produce vibrato on the guitar when holding out long notes. The second opener was Tally Hall, who was more popular than I expected. I've never heard of them before, so when they came out in their matching vests and mustaches, I thought it was a bad case of coordinating roadies. But, oddly enough, they actually tuned and set up, checked up their own instruments. Removing the mustaches and donning multicolored skinny ties, they played their medieval/Beatles/rap music. They were quite psychedelic, actually, combining four voiced harmonies, with beat boxing and ethnic spoken word. The crowd actually knew them quite well and even asked for an encore...for an opener! And, as nonchalantly as they came out, they pasted on their mustaches again to take away their instruments and get ready for Rooney.
Rooney looked as adorable as always, especially the lead singer, Robert Schwartzman. They've always had a good rapport as a band and they really jived. My favorites of the night were "Stay Away," "Losing All Control," and "When Did Your Heart Go Missing," which they saved for last. The crowd was not very energetic and rather quiet throughout the entire concert. Rooney also performed some songs off their newest EP, The Wild One. I also quite enjoyed their rendition of "Rocking in the Free World" by Neil Young, for which the band did an entire instrument switch. The keyboardist played guitar, the drummer sang lead, and Robert Schwartzman played the drums. It's nice to see a band so versatile. During the concert, the band members were talking to each other. Sometimes it had to with the performance, but other times they were just holding a conversation on stage. Regardless, looked like both the band and the crowd was having fun, with the exception of the bassist, who never showed any emotion. For me, nothing will compare with seeing Rooney for the first time but the second time was pretty darn good as well. I think the band has matured from the sound of their stuff from the new EP, which will hopefully serve to please some older audiences. With four more years to thirty, they can't be adhering to screaming fifteen-year-olds forever.
Overall, it was a great concert. I enjoyed it very much and so did Juhee, who hopefully will write a very long and thorough review of the concert herself. Now I must go rewatch The Princess Diaries and giggle like a fangirl anytime Robert Schwartzman is on screen. As a side note, while waiting outside to get in, we saw Robert Schwartzman discreetly get into a Toyota Highlander (parked in a no stopping zone) with four girls, which is really odd because they didn't tour with any girl band members. Well, let's see if he explains that in his video diaries.
Also, I have made it my personal goal to find someone to see Sondre Lerche in Birmingham, AL, with me. If Sondre Lerche is going to the dirty south, I have to make an effort to see him.
SET LIST
- Blueside
- If It Were Up to Me
- Don't Come Around Again
- Stay Away
- Wild One
- Are You Afraid
- Terrible Person
- Losing All Control
- Suckceed
- Daisy Duke
- Pop Stars
- Paralyzed
- Rocking in the Free World
- Sorry Sorry
- I Should Have Been After You
- When Did Your Heart Go Missing?
- I'm Shakin'
