Circles in Old Sacramento
Brian Linville - July 23, 2004
Moods -- Circle of 5ths celebrated their CD release party, beneath the streets of Old Town Sacramento at the club Moods. The rather strong line up, which also included Zero Ground, Better Left Unsaid, and Sixteen Switch, managed to pull in a medium sized crowd to a club that had been struggling to bring in decent numbers since reopening over a year ago under a 21+ age restriction.
First to warm up the crowd, new to the scene band Zero Ground took the stage first. The band consists of the two guitarists of Glitched, Dave Thornhill and Jason Pate-only in Zero Ground, Jason Pate handles drumming duties-former Wrecluse guitarist Adam Cossman fills in as second guitarist, and bassist/singer Dave Walsh completes the band. Ranging from aggressive to mainstream rock oriented, the band gave a good showing of their song crafting skills with a few solos thrown in throughout the set. Though Jason Pate had only been playing drums for eight months, he did an excellent job behind the kit from complicated, syncopated 16th note patterns on the high hat for opening song, "Manifest," to the tight and choppy song, "Seven."
The groove was good enough to inspire an elderly lady to dance around in front of the band as if she was having a flash back from her Woodstock days.
The band started out just as a side project to kill time while the guitarists of Glitched wait for their lead singer, Frank Vyan Walton to move back from LA. But, Zero Ground definitely has some potential to be a serious band in the Sacramento/Yuba City region.
Better Left Unsaid performed next, opening with their version of Helmet's song "Meantime," that's so different from the original, only the lyrics give it away. The band played, "Pool of Youth," second, at which point guitarist Jason Jones broke his guitar strap. Band roadie and 209 area scene supporter Mike Vanek swooped in to change the broken strap and the band played on, unphased by any distractions.
The crowd was more of a drink-your-beer-and-watch-the-bands, rather than a moshing kind of crowd despite the band's song "Concealed Creation," with its bouncy verses and moshable choruses. But the band did get good crowd reactions throughout their set and are no doubt gaining a bigger fan base in Sacramento with each show.
Circle of 5ths celebrated the release of their CD "Oscar November Echo (One)," which they had spent much of this year writing and recording. This show marked the first chance for many of the band's fans to hear the music live and buy a copy of the CD.
The band started off with "My Dying Day," a song which sets up the band's sound nicely. Bassist Mike McNellis does an excellent job going from slow, melodic bass lines to some really fast fret work, locking in tight with the drums. Drummer Jason Miller stuck mostly to your standard rock grooves, but could easily switch to a more ambient, organic mood with some cymbal taps here and there and subtle tom work.
Guitarist Nate Higgins and singer/guitarist Steve Mahoney built on top of the band's very solid rhythm section with the kind of chord work that can make even first time listeners sway back and forth in time and vocal melodies that repeat over and over in the mind long after the music has stopped. Bassist Mike McNellis stepped in to give some strong harmonies that really help to mold the band's sound into an either darker feel or a more open, polished sound in spots.
That strong, but dark sound really shown through in, "All I Wanted," which is perhaps one of the most chilling rock songs that the band has ever performed. At the end of which, that band announced, right there in the middle of their set, that drummer Jason Miller was now, respectfully, departing from the band.
New drummer, Cameron Ellis, took the stage and finished out the set. Cameron, who had moved from Texas just a few weeks ago to join the band, fit in pretty nicely-especially considering the stress of finding a job, place to stay, and all that goes with that in addition to learning the drum parts to half a set worth of songs all within that short a period of time.
Sixteen Switch brought their heavy, high energy party vibe music to the stage to close out the show. The band used to be known as the hard rock band Stick Figure, but changed the name as they changed singers over a year ago. Much of the band's new sound goes from poppy rap vocals for the verses, then flips over to hard driving, sing along choruses.
Most of the crowd was on its feet, standing and grooving right in front of the stage, transfixed by the band's positive energy and easily digestible rock steady beats. The band played right up until last call thus closing out a great night of music in Old Town Sacramento.
