That Is Not Dead

I attended the early Death To T.O. shows at the defunct Silver Dollar venue but haven't gone since they moved to the larger Lee's Palace. This local-bands-cover-famous-bands series also died recently. But since it was resurrected this year I thought I'd check out its evolution. Like before, the 20-minute sets were rotated between two venues; in this case, the larger Lee's downstairs and The Dance Cave upstairs. As the night grew, the crush got larger and larger. I  left relatively early as the list of later sets wasn't appealing enough versus the enormous crowd.

In Drift did a fun Blondie and should be commended for not playing the mega hits. The Effens looked and sounded like CCR. And for the most part the bands also dressed like their covered band or at least of that era. None more so than Rapport. They all dressed in the finest 80s outfit but Maddie Wilde was Cyndi Lauper, complete with colourful skirts and dyed hair. She even had a New Yawk accent for the banter.  Then it was downstairs for the danceable New Order (Komodo). By this time, it was getting too hard for me to switch venues. So I missed both sets of Patti Smith and Pink Floyd in The Cave. At Lee's, Nyssa was channeling Elvis Presley. This was the first time I saw her with a backingn band instead of just backing tracks and samples. She has the swagger to be a great front-woman. The last set of the night for me was an uplifting set of The Cranberries (Jessica Upton Crowe). I think many in the audience also found it cathartic.