Two-piece tunesters on 2/2 too much fun

By Erin Mae Szrankowski
Collegian Editor
February 6, 2008

Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. is a pretty ingenius day and time for a two-piece fest, a concert featuring only two-piece bands. Organizers tried to get 22 bands, but only 19 were able to schedule. When I heard about the two-piece fest, I automatically thought it would be held in New York City. As we know, a lot of cool things happen in New York. Well, I was fortunately wrong.

The fest took place at the Circle of Hope, a “church for the next generation,” on Broad and Washington streets. Peter and Craig opened the show, although not many people had arrived. Craig was the man in charge of booking and running this festival.

The next act, Eric ’n Eric, managed to finish its set before the show was pushed back three hours. The business below Circle of Hope complained about the volume, so the time was changed to 5:40 p.m. Some people left and others stayed for a screening of Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

This second time around the opener was Best Friends. They played in the front room, which looked like a gigantic, spacious loft. They introduced themselves as, “We are Best Friends,” which was very clever, because they were actual best friends. Since most people had not shown up, the sound was hardly absorbed and resonated throughout the room. It was pretty loud, but that did not stop anyone from listening. At the end of their 15-minute set, Best Friends conjured up a 30-person-deep group hug, complete with cheesy music. After all, we are all best friends. It was a great way to restart two-piece fest.

The next performance was in the back room, with another friend-related band—Deer Friends. Their instruments kept breaking down on them, which kind of took away from their set.

Shows were played alternately in two rooms, the loft area (front room) and the smaller playroom area (back room). Each band had a 15 minute set, except for Slingshot Dakota and Hulk Smash, who had 30 minutes each at the end of the show.

After Deer Friends were two back-to-back pop punk/emo New Jersey bands. Both acts seemed like the youngest in the bunch of performers.

The day had gone from group hugs, to emo, now to drone. The drone act, Ospreys, performed in the loft, and I don’t remember when they ended, or even if they did more than one song, but it sounded OK.

The night was full of random surprises. I had a fear that all of the bands would sound the same, but each was unique in its own way. A great example is the comedy rap duo of Rowan and Hastings. White boys plus rap plus comedy is an amazing combination. They even had a smoke machine to make their performance more comically dramatic.

The only acoustic set was done by Redwing Blackbird. Lights were turned down low and people sat on the floor. It was a nice break before the rock was truly brought.

Japanther, who was the feature of the night, came back to Philly with a roaring vengeance. They told the audience to rush the stage and those four songs they played were the best. It was pretty awesome and you could tell a lot of people were there for those guys.

The last act I saw was Slingshot Dakota. It was an impressive duo complete with a chick on the keys and a dude on the drums. They were pretty awesome, as well as solid.

Overall, the fest was a great experience, even though it was a small one. There was a refreshing number of bands who did a great job of bringing something different to the table. It goes to show that having two members in your band is better than one.

szrankowskie1@lasalle.edu