ARTICLE BY SHASTA CROSS
PHOTOS BY TIM CRUZ
JULY 28 | SILVERLAKE—Monday night, after four consecutive weeks, ’70s rock-influenced Under the Influence of Giants finished out their late-night residency at Spaceland in Silverlake … and to say that they went out with a bang would be a blatant understatement.
Although I’ve seen the Giants play well over 20 times now, I assume that could either make me a little bit bias or a little bit bored, but shows like tonight’s just proved to me again why I started following these guys so closely over the past three years. The energy in the crowd was literally contagious. Watching the sea of people pour into that tiny room to bounce up and down incessantly like they couldn’t care less that it was past midnight on a Monday night made me forget, even if just for a moment, that I had to be up in the morning and look presentable for work. Despite the room being arguably hotter than Hell, and people getting antsy after a slightly later than anticipated start, everyone was clearly here to rock out and have a good time.
The quartet—made up of Aaron Bruno (vocals), David Amezcua (bass), Jamin Wilcox (drums) and Drew Stewart (guitar)—tore up the stage, dripped sweat and danced their hearts out. After running through different set lists over the weeks and debuting a handful of new songs, one of which even put frontman Bruno on electric guitar, tonight the guys narrowed it down to the crowd favorites and stuck to a nearly immaculate lineup. When the UTIOG performed two new songs, you could tell who had been coming out week after week, as a handful of people were already lipsynching the lyrics to the new tunes. Obviously excited to be playing again and have new material, the guys thanked their management and fans, promising that the new music would be in their hands soon.
Fans who have been following the band for years were happy to hear the group bring back such songs as “Beautiful,” which is from even before their first studio record, the Bitch City EP. UTIOG also touched on much of their self-titled album, including catchy single “Mama’s Room” and an array of other killer tracks, such as “Faces,” “A-Ha” and “Got Nothin’.” With an explosive ending of “In the Clouds,” anyone who wasn’t at first dancing and flailing was inevitably sucked in by the end. When the show was over, people looked more like they had just completed a marathon than attended a rock show. But I guess you could say, by the looks of it, that would mean it was a pretty damn good show.
If you unfortunately had something to do on all four weeks of the UTIOG residency, you can go ahead and rest easy. Do yourself a favor and add Sept. 6 into your event calendar, because UTIOG will be back in action for Indie 103.1 at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles that night.
I found this article very useful.It explained in detail about the shows. I was unable to attend the shows, but i am stoked to see that they have another show soon.
Posted by: Kaydee | Aug 01, 2008 at 09:34 AM