22-09-2009 Middle Finger Mob

Supports: Rival Sons, Me Talk Pretty, Tarsha, Sinner Sinners; Venue: Viper Room, Los Angeles (USA)
By: Nina Mende

Tonight I happened to be at Viper Room. Five bands were playing, no headliner and opening act, just five bands playing. The styles of the bands varied big time, so it was not even a genre night, but simply crossover. Just like the band’s genres were changing the audience changed. Not very many stayed for all bands. Viper Room is a nice but very dark venue. The stage is quite small and sort of round. Tonight it wasn’t too crowded, but it was a Tuesday night, and even in Hollywood, people have to work the next day.

First band playing was Rival Sons. They are a band from South California. As they entered the stage I felt like at a 60s rock show. They looked like that and the music was just like that. There was a lot of blues in the music and a touch of the free spirit from the Hippie movement. The audience and band were shaking their booties and dancing around in the 60s style. I totally felt moved back in time, but it was great to see. The music was very catchy and got you going along. Unfortunately they only played for about half an hour, and then the next band came up.

The next band was from New York. MeTalkPretty is a female fronted band. The singer has a strong voice and enjoyed performing at Viper Room a lot. She was animating the now much bigger audience to dance, sing and clap along which they did. The singer was tiny but spread a lot of happiness. She and the entire band were moving around a lot on stage. The catchy songs got everybody going along, the audience even sang the chorus to one song. MeTalkPretty is a really thriving band. Catch them whenever you can.

The next band Tarsha had a lot of fans coming just for them. Their performance began with a video premiere to their new single “Second Life” which reminded me of “Moments Of Our Love” by Negative, not music-wise but image-wise. Tarsha is a local hard rock band from Hollywood featuring lead vocalist Tarsha, guitarist Jimmy Douglas, bassist Patrick Morgan, and drummer Darren Edwards. The music was really good and catchy. Everybody danced and rocked along. There was a lot of cheering. The performance was intense and was touching everybody in the room. The strong voice and amazing performance will stay in your memory for long. I hope these guys will do some more abroad someday.

Now quite some Rockabillies entered the room, because Sinner Sinners were up next. The band’s music, somewhere between punk rock and Goth, is ideal for setting the mood if one sleeps in a coffin, but also fits in perfectly in a rock club scene, but is also perfect to get your blood pumping before a night out. Formed by Steve Thill, singer/guitarist and his wife (Sam, keys and vocals) and an array of backing musicians, “Sinner Sinners” they rock stages. The singer’s voice is very deep and goes even deeper underneath your skin. The sound is catchy and gets you going along. Even though the band is quite serious on stage you can have a lot of fun seeing them live.

For the last band the room has gotten quite empty. The audience had changed completely, only a few were still lingering at the bar from watching the bands before. It had gotten late. But that didn’t make any difference to Middle Finger Mob who still rocked the Viper Room. Middle Finger Mob is a local rock band who will open for the 69eyes in Hollywood soon. They have a female background singer and dancer who motivated the audience to clap and dance along. The singer was quite harsh and straight forward about how he’s thinking, saying it out loud and getting his fans to agree. It was a true and dirty rock and roll show these guys put up at Viper Room tonight. But their performance didn’t last much longer than anybody else’s.

Links:

Rival Sons MySpace
Rival Sons Official
Me Talk Pretty MySpace
Me Talk Pretty Official
Tarsha MySpace
Tarsha Official
Sinner Sinners MySpace
Middle Finger Mob Official