Rome the Ruins at Penny Road Pub

Anywhere to put this hunk of metal?

If there's anything that I will remember from this night - it certainly won't be the music or bands playing, it will be the lack of parking.  Lack of parking isn't a big deal when you're in a city and you can find it somewhere else nearby.  However, Penny Road Pub is just about in the middle of nowhere.  When I got there, I found that there were only about twenty parking spots (which were all filled).  Other lots in the area were private lots that had multiple 'no trespassing' signs aggressively discouraging strangers from entering.  I ended up parking in a Target parking lot about two-ish miles away and ended up getting in some extra jogging to make the commute take a little less time.

I guess the point here is that if you plan on going to Penny Road Pub, get there early because the parking situation is lousy.

Rome the Ruins

At this point, there really isn't much more to say about Rome the Ruins other than that their shows are more or less the same.  Crowd interaction and stage personas are more or less repeated show after show like it's coming straight from a script, which makes the repeat value of a Rome the Ruins show much less than it really could be.  If you like pop-rock, it will probably still be worth your while to check them out multiple times especially if you liked them the first time.  However, the repeated formula that is their live show does start to wear rather thin.

???

I didn't really catch the name of the next group but it's not really a big deal anyways considering they're just another acoustic guitar act.  They didn't sound bad but they weren't fantastic either.  They played a couple of originals but the bulk of their set was covers.  Their covers spanned quite a few genres from "Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks to "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd to "Face Down" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus to some rap song I didn't recognize.  Overall, not a bad set but not one that was very remarkable either.

Goose

Throwing a complete curve ball at the audience, Goose was not only memorable but also intriguing.  The band is almost strictly instrumental and blends elements of rock, industrial, and post-rock two times over.  More particularly, they reminded me a lot of Explosions in the Sky with good use of harmonics and emotional transitions from quiet to louder movements.  I can imagine that it would be pretty difficult for a three-piece to create the intricate compositions that post-rock often includes but Goose pulls it off quite well with clever use of delay and looping effects throughout each song.  The songs can get rather lengthy but thus is the life and death of post-rock.  If you are a post-rock fan or looking to try something new, I would give Goose a legitimate shot.



Overall, not a bad use of a Friday night but if you find yourself going to Penny Road Pub, be weary of the parking situation and show up early!









No parking image:  http://wheelwrightcluster.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/No-Parking.gif