Live Concert Review: International Waters/Cry Apache Blood/Voxtrot @ Emo's 6/3/10

"It's a brand new era" as Pavement once said. Truly, does were the words that echoed the feel of the entire night. After such a prolonged silence, Voxtrot appeared with a farewell letter, a handful of tour dates, and one last single. Thankfully, the band was kind enough to include an Austin date in there and the town was able to do one last hurrah for them.

After waiting in a line that stretched around the block of the club, the show opened with a short and sweet set from International Waters. Made up of the guitarist and road manger of Voxtrot and a few other members, put on a good show for their 40 minute set. It was filled with a nervous energy a la indie rock vibe, with a touch of Surfer Blood and Fergus and Geronimo thrown in. While not the most original band out there, and the set definitely could have done with out the slow number near the end, it was enjoyable and there were sparks of energy and style the band to be seen.

The same kind words, or any for that matter, can be said for Cry Apache Blood. Usually one or two decent things can be said about a band of any form, but sorry Cry Apache Blood were just complete crap. Pure and utter noise, but not in a noise or No Wave band way. No, this was just three guys on guitar, bass, the loudest drum machine ever, and what could pass as vocals all played as randomly, as loud, and as annoying as humanly possible. I'd go more in detail on how they caused my ears to bleed, but the less that is mentioned about this band, the better.

Thankfully, Voxtrot came to the rescue and put on a spectacular show. For a band that would be leaving the musical world behind, the band acted and performed at the top of their game. Maybe it was the fact they were back home, the club was packed, and/or there was a group of girls standing up front screaming like they were at a boy band show, but cone Voxtrot hit the stage they were on fire. Ramesh Srivastava sang and played with a passion, as did the rest of the band. There was dancing, jumping, instruments in the air. The mic stand fell over twice and the lead singer of YellowFever sang with the band too. Mean while the crowd sung along to every word and more cellphones shot up then I thought could exist in one area. Then in an hour, even with the encore, the band was gone for good.

International Waters

Cry Apache Blood

Voxtrot