Rocking Horse Winner/The Sunday Network
Live in Tallahassee, FL (2002)
loserjames
I imagine the opener looks like Tad unplugged; one gigantic man and his guitar. The opener, who I regret to say never clearly said his name, songs all sounded nearly identical, mostly sparse guitar and rather quiet vocals. At times, the singer/guitarist's singing was reminiscent of the Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan. I wouldn't want to call his set boring, but I think I was counting my change during his set, but at least he seemed to enjoy himself.
The following band, the Sunday Network, seem to be Tallahassee's favorites. With a member of the bad, bad Standstill, the Sunday Network had the exact same contingent of enthusiastic fans, who looked like they rushed from Express to make the show. The music of the Sunday Network sounds like an even weaker New Found Glory, and the singer/guitarist sounds like an even more nasal Chris of Dashboard Confessional. The Sunday Network's over exaggerated stage antics, which seemed to be aped from their favorite blink video, were nearly laughable. The drummer made sure to show his âpunk rock cred' by knocking down his drum kit at the end of their set.
Headliners the Rocking Horse Winner were at least ten times better musically than the Sunday Network. I expected the female fronted Rocking Horse Winner to be some vein of hardcore, considering they're on Equal Vision Records, but I was surprised when they began playing friendly indie rock. For the most part, the Rocking Horse Winner played loud, up tempo rock, mixed with the occasional soft song. The softer songs reminded my of the Corrs, which I suppose if cool if you dig the Corrs. The singer's voice was very clear and sing-songy melodic, so melodic in fact, I couldn't always understand her words. The thing which stood out the most to me about the Rocking Horse Winner was the drummer. He was absolutely amazing, often playing jazzy off tempo licks. The Rocking Horse Winner ended their show by inviting members of the audience on stage to play various percussion instruments.
To summarize, the Rocking Horse Winner are a great live band, the unnamed opener was not too bad, and the Sunday Network are simply boring, degenerate pop punk.