Bottleneck
rocks on with songs, covers
by
Jack Bullion
Skiff Staff
Early in their
headlining show Feb. 1 at the Aardvark, Barrett Shipp, the lead
singer and guitarist of TCU band Bottleneck, educated his audience
on what to expect from his four-piece rock outfit.
They should
prepare themselves to not only hear some original material, but
also, Shipp mused: Something else. Oh yeah covers!
The bands
set, performed in two halves with a brief 20-minute interlude to
give lead guitarist and part-time vocalist Brett Yates enough time
to nurse his beaten guitar back to full-strength (he broke a string
during the furious solo of Something Like Home), didnt
disappoint on that pledge.
|
Special
to the Skiff
The band Bottleneck peforms at the Ardvark February 1.
|
While its
true Bottleneck has an extensive amount of covers in their repertoire,
its hard to quibble with them especially when theyre
played so effortlessly and, often, innovatively. The band navigated
two distinctly different entries in the Radiohead canon, High
and Dry and The National Anthem, as well as making
sure that the Pixies (Where Is My Mind) and Tonic (Open
Up Your Eyes) didnt get their feelings hurt.
Even cheeseball
rap standard Bust A Move was reinvented with drenching
funk courtesy of Yates, who also provided a crowd-pleasing rap flow
as accompaniment.
The covers also testify to Bottlenecks disparate influences.
While based in the catchy pop-rock of Third Eye Blind, the Goo Goo
Dolls and the Counting Crows, what truly separates Bottleneck from
about a million other sound-alikes is a fierce, very accomplished
musicianship that stands front and center at the bands live
performances.
Songs like Something
Like Home and the serpentine opener 2 Way Street
wrap themselves around the complex guitar arrangements laid down
by guitarist and vocalist Barrett Shipp and lead guitarist Brett
Yates, who is clearly the bands centerpiece.
In his hands
the guitar becomes a limitlessly galvanic instrument, and to hear
him alternately coax, tease and punish his six-string is to feel
the sudden urge to spray-paint Brett Yates is God on
campus landmarks.
Thursdays
show was more than a Brett Yates expo, however; Bottlenecks
set also provided ample evidence that the rest of the band has caught
up with its formidable guitarist. Of all the bands many influences,
a monumentally propulsive tinge of Zeppelin-esque rhythm burbles
noticeably beneath the accommodating pop-rock.
Drummer Andy
Rice and bassist Johnny Ferraro lay the foundation for such towering
displays, anchoring a song like Not Just a Glance with
an insistent, churning backbeat that billowed into full-fledged
sonic explosions by the time the powerhouse chorus rolled around.
Shipp miraculously managed not to drown amidst the turmoil all around
him, keeping the band tethered to earth with the playful, starry-eyed
romanticism of his lyrics and his breezily unpretentious on-stage
attitude.
These elements
converged spectacularly on the fiery closing number Well Lit
Girl, which held the audience in thrall for nearly 15 minutes,
as Yates gave everyone at the Aardvark a reason to believe that
Bottleneck will deservedly be headlining more than a few shows in
the future.
Jack
Bullion
j.w.bullion@student.tcu.edu
|