Rx Bandits

live in Oakland, CA (2003)

So, off to another show at Oakland's (in)famous Imusicast, a rather small (around 400) all ages club that webcasts all of their performances. Tonight's bill included socially concious rockers, The RxBandits, local pop punk acts Dexter Danger, and Locale AM, and the remaining members of Link 80 in their indie rock quintet DESA.

The first band on the bill was Dexter Danger. DD has opened for the bandits on at least one other occasion, so someone in the band must like them. I personally couldn't figure out why. Their music is of the pop punk variety with a few screams thrown in here and there. A small part of the audience got into it, I was not one of them. To their credit, this band is young, and has room to improve, but some of their songs seemed to be pretty pre-form pop punk anthems. These guys have gotten some attention, playing the Drive Thru stage, and opening for bands such as Yellowcard, and even playing The Gilman….I still couldn't get into them.

Next up came DESA. I've been a big fan of these guys since I saw them in one of their first shows. If you don't know, former Link 80 sax player Steve Borth joined the RxBandits after the last link 80 tour, the rest of the guys kept on writing songs, but decided that they weren't fit for link 80, and DESA arose. No horns here, just a blitzkrieg of guitars & bass, and singer Ryan Noble's unqiue vocal wailings. They played 3 of the songs off their current demo, and many new songs which sound nothing like Link 80, and offered a refereshing sound from the old east bay favorites.

After 45 minutes of good rock, came the pop rock quintet of Locale AM. For some reason these guys have a huge local following. They even played SXSW this year. once again, the phenomena eludes me. Don't get me wrong, they're all nice guys, but I just can't get into their live show. They played a variety of songs from their own DIY releases and a few tracks from their debut "Breaking the fourth wall" on local indie Popsmear records.

The RxBandits finally took the stage at around 10:15. They started off the set by not playing anything at all, and asked for a moment of silence for both American soldiers, and Iraqi civillians that have last their lives, or may lose their lives in the weeks and months to come. From there, they blasted into their new song "Sell You Beautiful," the fast paced hornless, "heard this chord progression a million times" song. Regardless of a common chord progression, the Bandits freshened it up with singer Matt Embree's passionate vocals, and meanginful lyrics. They played through songs mostly off "Progress" but also threw in "What If" before a false ending with the title track "Progress." After a minute or two of the crowd's "R-X-B" chant, the band came back out again and played "Status," "Gun in your hand," and closed out for real with the raucous "Infection." The downside to having such a well produced album as "Progress" is that you can't carry every subtle nuance onto your live show. Some keyboard parts were lacking during "Mastering The List" and with the departure of Rich Balling behind them, the background screams present on the album were nowhere to be found in their live show. Those small shortcomings overlooked however, the Bandits have gotten tighter with this lineup since their summer outing on the Drive Thru stage. Newest member Steve Borth seems well adjusted as doubling up for sax and background Vocals. They also played 2 other new songs, but didn't announce the titles of them, but they did continue the genre bending of "Progress."

Overall, the RxBandits put on a great live show with excellent stage presence, and were able to capture most of the elements which made Progress a great disc. While DESA made the show worthwhile to pay for, the other bands seemed lacking and misplaced on the bill, especially considering the socially relevant lyrics and politics of the Bandits, and the pop punk anthems of the younger bands. The Bandits showed again why, even if you hate Drive Thru, and every other band on the label, RxB deserves some attention.