Yesterday at NX35: Unwed Sailor at J&J's Pizza

Band: Unwed SailorVenue: J&J's PizzaTime: 11:22 p.m.A small place like J&J's Pizza's dim basement is a boon to bands who don't mess with stage antics like "vocals" and "fan interaction." An audience's attention is likely to stay on the band if it takes up precious real estate. Unwed Sailor's craft...

By Shahryar Rizvi

March 15, 2010

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Band: Unwed Sailor
Venue: J&J's Pizza
Time: 11:22 p.m.

A small place like J&J's Pizza's dim basement is a boon to bands who don't mess with stage antics like "vocals" and "fan interaction." An audience's attention is likely to stay on the band if it takes up precious real estate. Unwed Sailor's craft was well suited in this case--the band would have otherwise been simply loud background noise in a larger venue.

Here, it played with a style that merged ambient and progressive rock. Although the band played loudly, the ambient guitar layers and divergent meters still managed to lull attendees.

If you wanted to end your NX35 experience early and on a relaxed note, you couldn't have done better than this one. But, if you were like everyone else, you were out on the street barhopping for a bigger rush. Fortunately, the set ended at midnight--or just in time to walk to the full Rubber Gloves venue and hop in line for a slim wager to see Neon Indian.

A pair pissed off guys in front of me would have done good to mellow out with Unwed Sailor beforehand. Now that would have been good NX35 planning!

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