Overused Style, Technical Difficulties Drown Out Performance

Only Midnight
Cat's Cradle

Musical talent bogged down by vocal mediocrity is like your mom telling you to let your dorky little brother play Transformers with you and your friends -- the potentially good time is in serious jeopardy.

Somewhere within that analogy is the prime flaw of Chapel Hill's Only Midnight -- solid, fairly versatile rockers backing an overused college-band vocal style.

As Thursday night's show opened, singers John Briggs and Derek Olds let loose upon Cat's Cradle that sensitive, whispery vocalization dripping with melodrama. You know the one.

Different strokes for different folks, of course -- it's not that no band should adopt that sound, but it has certainly become trite after repeated use.

On the instrumental side, things looked similarly grim during the first few minutes. The acoustic rhythm was a little bland, and technical difficulties resulted in deafeningly loud bass accompanied by muted electric guitar.

It was unclear whether guitarist Briggs realized he was getting no sound, but if he didn't, his oblivious, intense solo face is all the more funny.

But as song two filled the venue with its sound and the equipment problems were ironed out, it became clear that the band does have talent in music arrangement and instrumentation.

Briggs' solos -- once they were audible -- provided splashes of fervid intricacy before winding back down into the songs' final, moody verses.

Comedy fans need not fret about this new development, however -- the faces that Briggs wore during his solos as he theatrically lunged at bandmate Derek Olds were plenty amusing, complementing his nifty if conventional improvisation quite nicely.

Other strengths included the hard hitting beats of the drummer, Derek Olds' older brother Brandon, who worked well in bringing many songs together in climatic finale.

Later, during one of the band's new songs, Derek Olds relinquished his acoustic guitar to join in on the percussion, getting his proverbial funk on in an energetic conga display.

Beat skills appear to run in the Olds family blood -- more of Derek Olds' conga playing would have been welcome in contrast to hackneyed acoustic rhythm.

By and by, Only Midnight's performance demonstrated that the group isn't a simple chump garage band. The members are obviously serious about what they do, and they're skilled at playing the music that they choose to play.

But their passion is misguided -- leading them in folly toward what has already been done and, what's worse, toward what others are doing.

So until and unless you reach a more unique style, Only Midnight, please don't bogart my Transformers.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.