This summer has been a busy one and lazy one all at the same time. Since I haven't been writing very much this summer, I will give you guys some short reviews on some of the bands I've seen.
American English in Gilberts
American English are a Beatles cover band that's pretty well known in the Chicagoland area. Most of the time, I've found myself skipping them on the account that they usually cost $20 or more to see. However, I ran into them at a small festival in the very small town of Gilberts, IL which was a real treat since this festival was free to attend.
As far as cover bands go, you are hard-pressed to find a better one than this one. Not only do they sound just like the original, but they dress and look like the original as well. The first half of the concert included the earlier Beatles hits while wearing the suits and skinny ties while the second half they dressed up as the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band and played the later stuff. They also changed the instrument models used to match the instruments that the actual Beatles used in the respective eras.
All in all, a fantastic show, especially if you are a Beatles fan.
The Last of Us
The Last of Us isn't a band but rather a video game I played through earlier this summer. It seems like I am reviewing it kind of late since it came out last year but I was waiting for it to go down to forty bucks because I'm cheap when it comes to current (well I guess previous) generation gaming.
If you own a Playstation 3 and you haven't bought this gem yet, you must go and get it right now. I mean, stop reading this and go out and buy it. This game lives up to all the hype I heard prior to playing it and went above and beyond every expectation I had for it. The story is deep and memorable. The gameplay is fun and geared towards both beginner and hardcore gamers with appropriately set difficulty levels. The music fits perfectly without being cliche like every other survival/horror game. The graphics demonstrate the fullest abilities of the Playstation 3 as cutscenes and gameplay are virtually seamless. If you enjoyed the Tomb Raider reboot, this game has a lot of similarities as far as the general gameplay.
I would also recommend the Left Behind DLC. It's a short prequel to the main story. It's a little pricey at $15 since it only takes a few hours to play through but it's still very interesting and very fun to play. The multiplayer is about what you would expect. There's a bit of an added element where you collect supplies during deathmatch/team deathmatch rounds to keep your colony alive but it really isn't anything to write home about. This game is definitely about the singleplayer.
Overall, this game is a trend setter for the survival/horror genre in the future. I feel that it really puts any of the Resident Evil games to shame with it's fluid controls, exciting gameplay, top-notch graphics, fantastic voice acting, memorable story, and unique combination of human and infected enemies. If I had any complaints about this game, they were long forgotten as the pros well weigh out the cons.
If you have a Playstation 3, buy it now. If you have a Playstation 4, buy the definitive edition now!
Rome the Ruins at the Bartlett Arts Festival
Rome the Ruins are a five-piece pop-punk group from the Hoffman Estates area. Their first show was played at the Bartlett Arts Festival and it was pretty decent. Since they have a female lead singer, they played some covers that were more geared towards female lead vocalists like Paramore's "Misery Business." Probably most noteworthy was their cover of Lorde's "Royals." No one in the band does backup vocals so they did the backup vocals on the lead guitar instead. It was a pretty cool spin on the original.
All in all, not a bad band to see, especially if there's nothing else going on Saturday night. The power drumming and finger tapping lead guitarist will keep you interested.
Jaded State at Riverfest and Glendale Heights Fest
I saw a local band called Jaded State at two different festivals. Both times they put on a solid show and both times I had a pretty fun time. They play a lot of Green Day and blink-182 covers. However, I could do without the Fall Out Boy Covers (ha ha). They're a pretty young band with most members being in high school and their drummer being only eleven (he's pretty good to). Most notably, one of their originals is actually really good. They ended both shows with it. You can give it a listen on their website here. It's called "You've Got Guilt."
I'm going to try and write reviews and blog posts more regularly. This past Saturday, I went to Warped Tour's annual stop in Tinley Park so there's a lot to talk about there. I am also going to be seeing some bands at Pub Yahoo this Saturday along with Jaded State on Sunday in a battle of the bands competition so I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting local bands to write about at those. Until then, stay tuned because there's a lot coming up.
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