Last Saturday I ventured to the Hideaway, and before a not-so-packed house of maybe 25 people, including the people that were playing and working, local indie-rock band Commerce and Nashville-based band The Ease played.
Commerce took the stage first, and right away I could tell that they were tighter than they had been the previous week at the Casbah.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Matthew Little’s lyrics never cease to amaze me. Little’s writing reminds me of late-period twothirtyeight mixed with Death Cab for Cutie because his lyrics are sincere and heartfelt, showing the condition of the human heart entwined with simplistic chords.
Drummer JG of The Well band fame provides a strong foundation to build upon for bassist Matt Martin, who kept the low end going almost flawlessly through the night while guitarist Chris Mitchell (of Winter of ’74 fame) danced and at one point spanked himself.
Little kept his voice under control most of the time, but did not lose any passion in his playing.
“To Jeff City With Love” was the highlight of their set where Little sang, “We have invested too much of our time already.” If this band continues to invest time in getting tighter, writing amazing songs and keeping Little’s voice under control, there could be no stopping them.
* * * 3/4
After a stellar performance by Commerce, Nashville-based band The Ease took the stage, and lead singer/guitarist Luke Sheets immediately said, “Please just stick around for three sounds, and if you do not like them, you can leave.”
Bad news for The Ease: A large portion of the crowd left before they finished with their second song. I wanted to leave with them, but hoped that somehow this band would get better.
Sheets, who looked and sounded like Scott Stapp from Creed, trashed their covers of The Beatles’ “Come Together,” Radiohead’s “You” and Travis’ “All I Want to Do Is Rock” with his atrocious voice.
First of all, I am a stronger believer in not covering songs by bands that are legends because the songs have already been played the best they could be played. (See 311’s cover of “Love Song” by The Cure.) Covering The Beatles is ill-advised, and when you cannot hit the notes that Thom Yorke hits, you should not even attempt to sing or play a Radiohead song, but these guys did.
I never wanted to hear Scott Stapp sing his own songs, let alone ruin some of my favorites. After the last cover, I was hoping the semi-drunk Scott Stapp look-alike would fall over dead, but I am not that lucky.
The only saving grace for this band is their bassist Brandon McDonald’s voice. McDonald should sing on all of the tracks instead of Sheets (Stapp), and this band would improve immensely because the talent is there, but the lead man and bad choices killed whatever talent was there.
–* * * (You get negative stars when you look/sound like Scott Stapp and ruin Beatles/Radiohead songs.)

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