Pinback...sits. (Drew Reynolds)
Pinback, Kylesa, The Loft Septermber 18, 2008
Better than: Standing behind a guy with a huge head who sways from side to side so that you can’t see the band. My foot was drawn back to kick him (ill-advisedly) in the back of the knee, when the guy on my left shifted and I ducked past both.
The audience that had fled from the noise and emphatic head bobbing of the opening metal act, Kylesa, quickly stubbed out their cigarettes and turned their backs on the Dallas skyline to crowd back inside as Pinback began setting up for its set last night at The Loft.
Onstage, Rob Crow, turquoise and white Fender in one hand, a bottle of Newcastle in the other, took a swig and smiled at the crowd that apparently got a simple concert-going uniform memo: most wore jeans, a black t-shirt and a jaunty hat tilted to the side.
Rob keeps up a running commentary to the calls and queries of the crowd. “Ahh yes, we plant someone in the crowd at every show and have them shout ‘Play Skynyrd,’” he says after someone calls out…you get the idea.
When heard on the album, the songs are catchy, with good hooks and a steady insistent beat that makes it excellent background music, the kind of thing that gets played in the “sad” montage sequences in romantic comedies right before everything gets solved. Hearing this music live, though, is a revelation.
The band is tight, and the lack of electronic trappings allows the skill of the musicians and the striking beauty of the singers’ voices to be heard, and particularly Crow’s.
The band is together and has energy and a wonderful vibe that easily went into the crowd, leading even the lone plaid-shirted Dockers-wearing guy in the audience to nod his head in time to the music. --Dianna Wray
Personal Bias: I think I’ve just become a fan of this group. A big fan. So I might be a little biased when I say they were amazing. They were amazing.
Random note: At the beginning of the show, there were two dollars in a coffee pot donation holder for the band's former keyboardist, Terrin Durfey, who is battling cancer. By the end it was stuffed with dollar bills.
By the Way: Rob Crow’s microphone had a beer holder on it.
