Circle of 5ths - Live show review

Sharing Feelings with Brand X Savior

Brian Linville - May 30, 2004
It's a Grind Coffeehouse -- It's a Grind Coffeehouse marked the spot for Brand X Savior to show off a new addition to the family, ex MyME guitarist Tommy as the band's second guitarist. Due to some booking confusion, Circle of 5ths front man, Steve Mahoney stepped in last minute to open the show.

It's a Grind has only been hosting shows for a couple months now, but has already started to draw a few new people lured by the idea of a free show, good coffee, and nice comfy chairs to sit in. With a lot of the bigger all ages venues shutting down in the Sacramento area, coffee shops have gotten to be popular gathering places for kids, not old enough to get into bars, to come in and see some smaller scale shows.

With some help from Drone ex guitarist Mike, Steve Mahoney was first to warm up the crowd. You would be hard pressed to find someone in the Sacramento music scene that doesn't know the out-going and charismatic Steve Mahoney. He's been in several very popular metal bands throughout the years and has attended hundreds, if not thousands of local shows. The two guitarists started with a medley of intros from Slayer songs played on their acoustic guitars before going into a mix of new and older radio hits. The small crowd in attendance seemed to know all the songs played and several sang along. A few people even translated lyrics into American Sign Language for a Deaf girl in the audience. It was a really fun, casual vibe with Steve teasing Mike for not having the songs down and Mike laughing with each mistake. The two cut their set short, and left to go mingle with the many members of other bands in attendance.