Wow, what a night.
We arrived at The Boot for our 9PM reservation seriously overdressed and settled into our table. The place a great cozy feel to it and nice style. I went straight for the duck and balsamic reduction, sides of small new potatoes and green beans. The flavor was great, I totally cleaned all traces of the sauce off my plate. Because the duck was made to order and takes so long to cook, I think they rushed it a bit and served it to me undercooked. The breast was good, it was the leg that was rare and impossible to cut off the bone. I told my waitress and the owner before the night was out, not to cause a scene, just to let them know. My fiancee’s meal was fantastic though, a clam and spicy sausage with pasta and a tomato based sauce. It was a bit too spicy for her; I wound up sopping up every trace of the sauce with bread it was so good.
By the time we were done with the food the place started to fill up and Norfolk based Yokefellow hit the stage. It’s just one guy, he was joined onstage by a young lady on violin for a few songs. It was a very calm introduction for the following acts. After the show Yokefellow gave me a copy of the anchors ep, his 4 song demo. Here is one of the tracks off of it:
Yokefellow – Sleeves Up
After Yokefellow finished his set the stage was swarmed with a crowd of people and equipment that was Holler Wild Rose. The New Jersey band launched their wall of sound off to an energetic start. Three guys with guitars, one drummer, one bassist and a girl on a keyboard. Wow. Frontman John Mosloskie’s voice has been described as resembling Thom Yorke, Jeff Buckley and Sigur Ros’s Jón Birgisson, but trying to describe the bands waves of sound by comparing it to another band or genre ultimately fails. They have a unique sound and put on a great show. Check out their YouTube videos for one, and read this profile of the band. Here’s them performing Captive Train last night, midway through the set.
Newport News’s Westbound was the reason I had wanted to come to the Boot in the first place. When I first heard “I Swear We Were Infinite” I knew I had to go see them. Their instrumental heavily textured guitar sound reminded me of post-rock acts like Tortoise and Mogwai, and I had to check them out. I was not dissapointed. They kicked right off with their lush sound and I was not dissapointed. Here’s a clip from one of the songs they played.
We had to leave before they were done with thier set, but they will be back at the Boot in a few weeks. I cannot wait to hear more from them and will try my best to help get these local boys the chance to play over on this side of the water.
