So the first show at Scene SC’s House of Softcore went off without a hitch, and all in attendance had a great time (especially Ben Walker) and saw an amazing show. In fact, it was such a good experience that I feel it’s a foregone conclusion that House of Softcore is going to be your new favorite place to catch shows in SC, and I’ve put together a few reasons why:

1) Best Locals

We’ve all been to a show out-of-town at some point or another where we hopped into a car, sped the entire two, three, or maybe four hour drive to make sure we got there on time and before it sold out, only to wish that we’d been late enough to miss the local opener that bored us to death. Lucky for us, Columbia has grown to be the epicenter of a growing music scene that’s spawned some amazing talents. It’s safe to say we’re never have to worry about that happening to us here at the HoSc.

2) Intimate Atmosphere

There’s just nothing like seeing your favorite artists playing in a living room surrounded by your friends. There’s also nothing like being able to tell all your friends, “I saw them when…” It won’t be long before the HoSc is serving as the setting to the music snob stories you’re telling your friends who were late to the party. And if you thought Part II was a tear-jerker before, your heart’s absolutely going to break when you see the video of All Get Out’s Nathan Hussey play it at the HoSc. And yes, it’s okay to cry here. I mean, we named it the House of SOFTCORE, didn’t we?

3) They Stock The Soft Stuff

The HoSc is all about comfort, and there’s nothing more uncomfortable than the sandpaper-like, public-school toilet paper stocked at most venues (And 60 South barely ever had any! For shame!). Luckily, SceneSC’s got you covered, and you’re going to have a much more pleasant trip to the bathroom to clean up your tear-smeared makeup and collect yourself before you head back into the living room for more.

And, of course, there are a hundred more reasons to come (Did you taste the salsa?!) than what’s been posted here, so we hope to see you at the next house show. Thanks to everyone who came out, to Nathan Hussey, Ben Walker, and Elonzo for playing, and to SceneSC’s David, Hillary, and Meredith for being great hosts.

Coming up at the House of Softcore:

September will bring Columbus, Ohio’s The Black Swans to the HoSc. Check them out by downloading this Phoning It In Session. See you there!

We are also lining up a handful of other acoustic shows that you will be hearing about soon.

P.S. Do a little searching though Phoning It In’s archives and you just might find a session by everyone’s favorite house show veteran David Bazan.

On Friday night alone the Scene SC team attended three shows.  We kicked off the night by seeing Bess Rogers and Lelia Broussard at The White Mule.  It was an early show and there were only about twenty people there, which was really disappointing because both of these artists are really good.  So stop complaining that Columbia doesn’t get good shows when you don’t go to the ones we have.  This one was a gem and you missed something special.

After The White Mule the Scene SC team split up and Meredith went to check out Magnetic Flowers at a house show.  I think it was off Greene Street and she said it was hotter than hell in the house.  While she went to that show, I headed down to The Trustus to get set up for The Restoration CD Release.  I know a lot of people have been looking forward to this for a long time and it did not disappoint.  Within twenty minutes of the door opening all of the seats in the theatre were sold out and there was standing room only.  We had a little Scene SC booth set up with shirts and stickers and mailing list sign up and got one name.  Not sure why people were so shy, we give away free stuff on that mailing list!

The Restoration went on at about 10 o’clock and we stood up in the loft with the video camera so we could get a decent angle.  They played straight through Constance and I’m not sure it could have gone much better.  We got our comedic relief when Stephen Russ of The Fire Tonight tossed the tamborine in the air and missed the catch on the way down.  He’s known more for his offense than his defense I suppose.  By the end of the night they had nearly sold out of the books that came with the CD, so to call this a success is an unterstatement.  It was one of the top release parties I’ve ever attended.  Definitely the most interesting.

Saturday we hosted The Rocketboys at New Brookland Tavern.  We always enjoy having those guys in town and we gave away our first Scene SC Care Package.  Remember all that Fuel The Scene talk??  Well we spent some of that money and gave the guys a sweet package of goodies.

The crowd at New Brookland was solid Saturday but about 30 more people there would have been nice.  This was seriously one of the best line ups we’ve seen in a while.  The Patient is quickly growing into not only a top level “local” band, but a band we might vote “most likely to succeed.”  Friends and Romans was great, but The Patient has more well written songs and it is much more dynamic and talented.  Jeremiah was a huge addition to that group of guys and his guitar is just what the band needed.

Brandon Kean opened the show playing acoustic for the first time on a big bill.  It isn’t easy to play acoustic at New Brookland Tavern and Brandon doesn’t have the strongest voice, but he took control and took everyone’s attention by playing in the crowd.  He said fuck the people sitting at the bar, let me play for the people that care.

The Rocketboys soared through their set.  Imagine Explosions in the Sky with a singer with a pretty, clean voice and nostalgic lyrics.  All of their songs are splashed with ambient E Bow guitar parts, delay, xylophone and dynamic ups and downs.  They are as smooth live as the on their album.  Columbia has done a good job at making this town feel like a second home to this band and I’m sure they won’t hesitate to tell you they love coming here.

And it makes it a lot easier to come to Columbia when you are playing main support for one of our premiere artists in Austin Crane.  Kenny McWilliams, who has been playing keys with Austin, filled in on guitar in the absence of guitarist Nathan Poole.  The band didn’t miss a beat and we even got to hear some of Austin’s new material from his new project Valley Maker.  If you haven’t heard Valley Maker yet, then you aren’t following the right people on Social Networks.  Friends and fans have been in love with these songs ever since they hit the net last week.

Filming this was way more of an adventure than the first one.  We were lucky to get Terrence and Philip of Junior Astronomers in the women’s bathroom for 5 minutes in the middle of the show.  While this was being filmed, their van got towed and we got kicked out by New Brookland Tavern staff seconds after the camera stopped rolling.  So whoever the red dress girl that complained was, she needs to get a life.

We were accompanied in the bathroom by Scene SC Meredith and Racheal, Jayna of This Machine is Me and of course the lovely Terrence and Philip.

Enjoy.

This

Dear Diary, last night was OSM.  There were more girls than guys at the show.  “So this is what a room full of girls looks like,” is what I was thinking the entire time.  What heaven might look like all of the time.  Then Jenny Owen Youngs started talking about Ke$ha and I realized I might be in hell.

Emily Lynch opened the night with her country flair and easily took the crowds attention.  She went to school at Clemson, which we will try and forgive her for, but is currently based out of Georgia.  This was Emily’s second time at The White Mule and she has played with Columbia’s own Hannah Miller in the southeast.  Check her out, she is a delight.

Next up was Bess Rogers and our highlight of the night.  Bess was our introduction to 2/3′s of the Spring Break Forever tour.  Allison Weiss is the third installment who couldn’t make it to the Columbia show.  She hasn’t visited us here since she rocked our Scene SC’s first birthday party this summer.  We miss her.  Bess played us a nice mix of new and older songs last night, one of the newer ones you can check out in the video above.

Jenny Owen Youngs closed the night with a set that was a straight up mix of stage patter and music.  Usually too much talking might get on your nerves, but it was really entertaining.  Last time we saw Jenny was in Charlotte with her full band and the show was not nearly as laid back.  It was a huge contrast in performances and last night was way more personal and showed a different side that we don’t usually get to see.  Keywords from last night, we say Go Cocks for our mascot, Ke$ha is part of a global domination scenario and JOY is the messenger and JOY will not play Hot in Herre even if you have the lyrics on stage for her.

Photo Courtesy of Woody Jones

To say that Confederate Fagg rocked a packed house at New Brookland Tavern Saturday November 14th would be a bit of an understatement. To truly understand the level of rock-n-roll debauchery unleashed upon West Columbia that night, one need only have seen the piles upon piles of plush animal stuffing and pornography strewn about the NBT floor at the close of the show. Taking the stage in their signature leather, fishnets, and macrame, and with enough eyeshadow to make David Bowie blush, Teabag Balzac, Mango Chutney, Spanky Swatnasty, and Packer resembled a bizarro-world Village People. Luckily, the V.P. comparison ends there. Unleashing a volley of rock ranging from glam metal to good old-fashioned punk, the Faggs could not be stopped in their quest to simply “rock your balls off.” With a playful swagger,the band turned out flaming covers  from such giants as AC/DC, The Stooges, and Cheap Trick as well as delivering a few choice originals including the epic “Down with the Boys” off their 2003 release, Rock and Roll Hall of Flame. Coming up on nearly a decade of rocking the socks off Cola town, live performances from the Faggs have dwindled to essentially a yearly gig. This may not be such a bad thing.  The NBT audience will probably need a year to recover from all the inhaled stuffed animal particles. Thanks for the good times, Faggs. See you next year!

PS: I included a photo that I took. Feel free to use it though for some people it could be NSFW.

So I haven’t written about my Warped Tour 09′ experience yet because there really wasn’t that much good to say about it.  I almost feel like I did 10 years ago when there were only a couple of bands on Warped that I had any desire to see.  A more appropriate title of this post would be “The Fall of Warped Tour,” but I don’t have the guts to title it that because I’ve probably just grown out of it.

So we started off the day trading a 12 pack of Heineken with Steve the Nigerian Trojan Condom Rep for 3 VIP wristbands.  That is a pretty good deal since it cost $40 to get in this year.  That is double what it was 5 years ago.  So now you pay twice as much for a lot less good bands.

After arriving at 1 o’clock and dealing with the heat, the rain and a 10,000 kids with neon sunglasses, we stuck around until the end to hear Gallows.  We walked up during their first song and couldn’t figure out what was going on.  There was no one on stage, but the band was playing and their was a huge circle pit going.  Everyone from Gallows except the drummer played the entire show, minus the encore in the middle of the crowd going bat shit crazy with their fans.

In the last 9 years there have been three moments at Warped that were the best things I have ever seen at a live show.  First was when the singer of S.T.U.N. climbed to the top of the Ernie Ball stage and with the mic wrapped around his neck.  The second coolest thing was when Bert McCracken of The Used did a 20 foot faith fall into the crowd after he had just broken his arm doing it at a previous show and the third was Gallows being in the middle of the crowd for an entire 30 minute set, making fun of every other band on Warped Tour minus Alexisonfire and Bayside.

Gallows straight up verbally abused every “neon” band on warped tour and called out Brokencyde specifically for their major suckage.  Gallows is what Warped Tour is all about and it felt good to be reminded of the real reason I was there after listening to crap all day.  I’m lookin at you Jeffree Star.

Other notable bands that I enjoyed were Underoath, Bayside, Shooter Jennings anddd that’s about it.

Graeme Fouste was beside us at a couple of these shows and got some great pictures of Bayside and Underoath, so go to his website and check them out.  There are some more good ones here.

The best thing I could have done with my backstage pass this year was punch Jeffree Star in the face and I didn’t do that.

Magnetic Flowers at NBT from pxsoul on Vimeo.

I’ll tell ya where we’ll go. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. And beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talkin’ bout a little place called…The Elbow Room.

Enticed by good music and a $2 cover I made my first trips to The Elbow Room last Thursday and Friday nights.  I’ve written about the new venue a couple of times, but haven’t really taken the time to go check it out yet.  I decided to give them a little time to settle in before I passed judgment on them.  And for the record I have no affiliation with The Elbow Room.

The Atmosphere

As it is right now The Elbow Room is a nice mix of a bar and venue.  There is plenty of standing room in front of the stage as in a traditional venue, but also plenty of seating around the bar to find a place to sit down and have a conversation.  In the back by the pool tables you can talk over the bands if music is not your thing.  Because the cover is usually only $2, you can afford to take a chance on hearing some new bands that you might have not heard before.  If the low cover and music doesn’t draw you in, then maybe the drink specials will.  For the past 10 years I’ve been in Columbia, the cost of everything has gone up except the price for a drink in 5 Points.  The Elbow Room has $1 PBR draft and plenty of other cheap drink specials to get you tipsy without breaking the bank.

The sound system is fine.  It isn’t top of the line, but it gets the job done.  I’m not sure that the everyday listener could even tell a difference from the system that Sudworks had in there.  I felt like they could have used a couple of more lights on stage, but who really cares about that.

Overall The Elbow Room is an enjoyable place for live music.  The bathrooms are cleaner than most, there is a long bar so it isn’t too hard to get a drink,  there is plenty of “elbow room” so you aren’t too packed in and the open air feel with the garage and windows open makes it a pretty good place to watch some bands.  There was a big crowd both nights I went making the venue really come to life.  Let’s see if they can sustain this.

Josh Roberts and the Hinges

Last week I talked about how they should move 5 Points After 5 to another venue if the weather wasn’t cooperating.  I doubt it was because of anything I said, but last week they moved the band from the fountain to The Elbow Room.  This worked out great because when I got to the venue there were about 100 people of all ages outside and a packed house inside.  The weather had cleared up and made for nice night.  Josh Roberts put on two blistering sets filled with guitar solos and plenty of rocking out.  Some of the artists said that the new Elbow Room had the same energy as the original.  I wish I could truly verify this.

Magnetic Flowers

The Magnetic Flowers are just what every Friday night needs.  After a week in the office everyone needs to get out, live a little and unlax.  From their opening notes, The Magnetic Flowers had the crowd hooked into their musical journey, taking everyone from a dreamy drunk with “Widescreen Version” to a screamalong version of Weezer’s “El Scorcho” with 10 people on stage.  Watch out for their CD Release July 25th at Art Bar.  We’ll be sure to remind you a couple of times in the future.

All Get Out-Lucky Bastard from Scene SC on Vimeo.  (Yes, we know “decides” is spelled wrong.)

The folks over at Metromix Atlanta had a bunch of good things to say about All Get Out‘s performance in Atlanta last week.  I had the opportunity to go to this show and meet some talented people involved in the Atlanta music scene.  Check out Marigolds and Monsters and Fun With Robots.

All Get Out has been touring nonstop since last fall and sharing the bill with Atlanta artists Dead Confederate and Manchester Orchestra, which has helped make them local favorites. On March 11, they stopped by the Drunken Unicorn on their current tour with Black Gold and Lydia, but it was no surprise that most of the crowd was there for All Get Out.

Being the opening band can be a hard role to play, considering that crowd attendance is typically low as people trickle in later for the headliner. At the Drunken Unicorn, however, that was not the case. Thirty minutes after doors opened, the club filled with fans there to see All Get Out. When the band exited the stage, so did a good percentage of the crowd.

Although nonstop touring is exhausting, All Get Out didn’t lack any energy while they were in Atlanta. Their set was tighter than ever and lead singer Nathan Hussey’s voice never faltered. He even managed to stay on key for his guttural yell at the end of “Don’t Let Me Go,” which opened with a softer intro that silenced the crowd and ended with a dynamic jam from the band.

One of the catchiest tracks was “Water and God,” a song from All Get Out’s self-titled EP that not only amped up the crowd even more but also had many fans singing along and taking cell phone photos. The increased popularity of this hardworking group is well deserved. Local fans are not the ones taking notice. Former tourmates Andy Hull and Chris Freeman from Manchester Orchestra were also in the crowd. Freeman even jumped onstage to contribute to the harmony on “Come My Way.”

As All Get Out continues at their breakneck speed, gaining fans and respect within the music community, there is no telling where they will be playing next or if there will even be any tickets available—especially when they come to Atlanta again.

When I was mentioning people I saw, I forgot to mention one of my favorite local bands of all time. I saw George Cooper of the Geek Rock Gods Love Apple.  Also Check out Our Love Apple Tribute to the past HERE.

(Photo Courtesy of Catherine Brown)

I mozied on down to 5 Points about 1 o’clock Saturday to make sure I got there in plenty of time to see The Heist and The Accomplice.  Some how this is the first time I’ve ever seen them live.  I’m not really sure how that is possible, but sadly it is true.  I did try to see them with Yarkwork a couple of weeks ago, but the crowd at The Whig was too much to handle.  On my way to the Free Times stage I stopped by the 104.7 artist area to see what the Merry Thieves were up to.  I walked backstage to see Erich and Colin kicking it with Andy Hull and Robert McDowell of Manchester Orchestra.  For a second I was like Whoa Joaquin Phoenix is here, but then I realized it was just Andy Hull.

I ended up getting to the Free Times stage just in time for The Heist and they were every bit as good live as I expected.  I was rocking out with movies stars like Pat Wall, retired/unretired rockers Nate Puza and Justin Hallas, Free Times Freelancer Kevin Oliver, the gang of thugs in Cats and Cobras.  WUSC’s Marcy Bozek was also there taking pictures and we’ll get those posted soon.

Next up for me was the 104.7 stage to see Marry a Thief.  The thieves kicked off their set in a little different fashion than usual and played “Falling Out of Your Dress” which they usually don’t play live.  Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra came up and sang guest harmonies as he did about a year ago when Marry a Thief opened for Manchester Orchestra at that rock club in the vista across the street from Jimmy Johns and beside Wet Willies.  Sorry I forgot the name of that place.  It is also rumored (true) that there is a recorded version of Andy playing this song randomly in the studio while working on demo’s for their newest album.  Good luck finding a copy.  On a sunny day Marry a Thief, The Heist, and Manchester and all of the other bands would have been playing for about 10,000 more people at least.  The stage in front of Bar None is usually packed around the corner on Saluda street.  This year the Saluda street stage was basically empty.

Next I made my way to the front of the 93.5 stage for Manchester Orchestra.  I was expecting to hear some new songs, since they have a CD coming out in a month, but I was kind of shocked to not hear one old song.  So in the last 2 weeks hardcore Manchester fans would have recognized two songs.  “I’ve got Friends” is on the Myspace and Friday they released a video for “The Only One.”  “I Can Feel a Hot One” has been out awhile, but they didn’t play that.  Whatever, they obviously know what they are doing.  Atleast the new songs they are playing are really good.  Otherwise we would have a major problem.

After Manchester I caught the end of Treadmill Trackstar and then headed over to Mute Math.  I think 10 years ago Treadmill Trackstar would have been opening up for Hootie and the Blowfish and Edwin McCain on the main stage, but times have changed and Atlantic records is no longer picking up Southern bands left and right like they did with Cravin Melon, Far Too Jones, Hootie, and Edwin.  I’m sure I forgot some but you get the point.  Times change.

SKobos or my sister Meredith is going to write about Mute Math, because they enjoyed it a lot more than I did.  All I know is that Meredith got hit with a drumstick and now it’s sitting in our music room.  I think that Cayla Fralick has the matching stick.

Now go HERE and read Pat Wall’s summary of the day.  He has some bands that he watched that we didn’t that you need to check out.

Sarah Kobos Takes Pictures