Duck Goes Moo!

What do you get when you combine sixties-style inspirational pop, eighties hip-hop beats, 90′s grunge, and a cheerleading squad? Something suprisingly catchy and fun to listen to.

They’re called The Go! Team, and they are based in Manchester… I think. Visit their site and go to the “Music” section to have a listen.

Christopher Mast has sent me a link with some of the photos and I took at the Cummel’s concert earlier this month.

Here is a nice picture of Cummel’s:

The show was opened by Mitch Ure.
He played out some classic vocals and guitar riffs.

Brandon Baker came up next. He was one of the more creative and fun of the bunch. His high-ptiched wailing vocals went well with his dreamy guitar playing, as well as his creative use of audience participation during his “Imagination” song. He also played a xylophone and provided additonal percussion with a tamborine using his foot:

The Complete Strategist came up after Brandon and played a real nice set. The main thing I liked about this band was how well the drummer and the bassist worked together to add some really precise rhythm to their music:

Karmell’s game played after that. I already made a goof of myself in an earlier post about them, but I will once again stress that they utterly rock:

JJ Hamon played after that, which was quite a contrast after the power pop of Karmella. JJ plays highly textured, calm-inducing guitar and vocal bits that I really got a liking for:

Straight from Indianapolis, Indiana was Jascha Updike. His gritty vocals and powerful accoustic guitar playing was a nice pick-me-up after the soothing JJ Hamon set:

And of course, last but not least, was Chritsopher Mast, who was nice enough to take these pictures after my camera ran out of power. In return I took his camera and shot some pictures of him while he performed:

Okay, I will call this the best concert nobody saw; or should I say, the best concert no one but the performers, their friends, and the staff of Cummel’s saw. Perhaps it is the lack of alcohol that scared people off, but hey, I got tanked before I came over.

The music did not start at 7:00 like advertised, so I made the rounds and I got to know some of the musicians. I first met Katie, from Karmella’s Game.

Katie is from Baltimore, likes to knit hats and purses, and also likes to rock out completely :

I cannot say how much Karmella’s Game utterly rocked. Katie and Mandy were a blur of correographed riot grrl action, plus they had incredible voices that harmonized perfectly over the thumping bass and rythym of the bassist and drummer, who worked together flawlessly to provide a room shaking beat that begs to be moshed too… though there wasn’t any room for moshing.

Even though I probably shouldn’t, I’ll still go on about Katie. Her cordination and just sheer rockitude was just spetacular. Here is her “station” she manned:

While playing all four of these keyboards she also stomped, lept, gave signals to her band mates, shook her hair back and forth in unison with Mandy, and in general was very awesome. Class act all the way. If you want to hear a sample of what they sound like, check out their MySpace link.

I also met Christopher Mast:

He is a real cool cat who actually used to live in an apartment I used to live in across the street from Cherry Street in Galesburg. His singing was actually really good, which is why it sucked he was last in the playing queue.

Unfortunately I forgot to check how much power my camera had before I came over, so I realy only have a few pictures of the four hours of rock. Thankfully, Christopher had a fully powered camera and he’s going to let me use some of the pictures he took, so then I’ll be better able to show the various artists, like the very awesome The Complete Strategist, who are touring with Karmella’s Game. Here is a picture of Katie, Mandy, and also two guys from The Complete Strategist whose names I unfortunately forgot.

I will write more here once I get some of those images, but in the end I really think it is a shame people missed Friday night at Cummel’s and I’m very glad I got to check it out.

When I saw pink posters with pictures of kittens with skulls and crossbones plastered on the walls of Cummel’s Cafe I just had to ask what it was all about. I asked Peggy and she said it was a Japanese girl band that all dress in schoolgirl outfits. I was of course intrigued further, but I went to the website for the band and I got the funny feeling there might not be any japanese schoolgirls at Cummel’s come this Friday. Still, it looks like a cool band, appearantly some kind of synthesizer rock group, and I’ll still go to check it out. I even posted an add for the concert on the top.