Local Bands Rock It

Maybe Lenny Kravitz was right when he proclaimed that "rock and roll is dead," much to the shock of the millions of people who had already known that for a decade. But maybe he was wrong. The essence of pure rock has been around far longer than the day when Ed Sullivan's camera man was ordered to shoot Elvis from the waist up, and something as ineffable as the spirit of rock and roll does not roll over and die so easily.

In a culture where a band's success is governed more by consumerist values than artistic ones, there are few bands that can transcend the pressures of what will sell to make music that will have an impact. With this in mind, Wednesday night's showcase of Cleveland-area rockers went against everything that is wrong with rock and roll.

Electro-pop-diehards Furnace St. opened the show with a set primarily composed of material from their forthcoming release, Lady Killer. Relying on a battery of pre-record samples, Furnace St.'s set was watertight, and the energy of the group provided an ideal opener for the night. Blending new wave influences in the vein of Depeche Mode and New Order with distorted guitar- and bass-driven hooks and a touch of gothic melodrama, Furnace St. evades simple classification, and the duo worked through their dynamic set with ease.

Elyria-based Brandtson easily picked up where Furnace St. left off. The formula for the band was simple: two overdriven guitars, melodic vocals lines and songs about ex-girlfriends. Working this formula to the fullest of its possibilities, Brandtson capitalized on the larger-than-life trends in emo and attacked their set with well practiced precision. Drawing on their growing Cleveland fan base, Brandtson is definitely a band to watch; they are very big now and they're just going to get bigger.

The biggest set of the night, however, was without a doubt the Cleveland-based indie rock quartet Viva Caramel. Viva Caramel's challenging set closed the night with unbelievable style. They had everything one could hope for, from complexly organized and legitimate songs to duct tape-tagged amplifiers. Stated simply, Viva Caramel has the essence of rock and roll down to a science, and the only way to make their 40 minute set better would have been to make it longer. People slow danced and everything.

Given the parade of shows that come to the 'Sco, the night of local bands easily stands atop the list of events in terms of both quality and spirit, and if rock and roll is truly dead these three bands showed the ghosts of how good it could be.