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In 2007 Christian Celeya of Benzos and Woody Ranere of Lake
Trout decided to start a new project together called With Lions. Up until now, With Lions' output has
been music mostly for television and similar programming, not albums or songs
in the traditional band paradigm as they had with their prior bands. Touch The Sound marks their first release as a band. And other than a recent night for CMJ (QRO
recap), November 11th at New York's Mercury Lounge (QRO venue
review) marked their first show as stage
performers and EP release.
The opening act, Hurrah! A Bolt of Light! electrified the
start of the night. Their music
sounded something like Joe Cocker or Bruce Springsteen & The Easy Street
Band (QRO live review), very charged
and exciting. It'd be difficult  to
stand motionless during one of their sets unless you are in a body cast. The singer has the wide-eyed intense
glare of PIL's John Lydon (QRO live review - and if you said Hurrah's frontman was his son, I'd believe you), an
intense stare and focus similar to Ian Curtis. Watching him and his female co-singer was like watching
Johnny Cash and June Carter having as much fun entertaining themselves as their
audience. The crowd was not shy to
embrace the spirit of excitement either.
Next, Happy People changed the vibe of the evening. They slowed the pace down a bit with
less dance ignition and more a reflective sound, igniting  thoughts of early
Pink Floyd, had Jeff Buckley been the frontman. The singer sounded reminiscent of another band, to the point
where one might have thought it was a side project of Tim Smith of Midlake (QRO
album review). There was a lot of interaction between them and the crowd,
though it is uncertain whether these were just friends in attendance or fans
familiar. Either way, the crowd
was loyal.
 With Lions take the stage to end the night. Christian and Woody were accompanied by
four players to fill out their live show, with two of the members from Happy
People, including the singer. HP's
singer is not Michael Ortega from the original Benzos line-up, as you might
assume, but his brother, Stephen.
He not only filled in with backing vocals, but also sang lead on a few
tracks.
Hearing Celeya and Ranere played and sang together, and one
was immediately struck by how complimentary they are with similar voices. Four years ago one easily could see how
their voices would, but to finally hear them coalesce sates expectations. Anyone familiar with Benzos and Lake
 Trout should be more than pleased with the new material. The foundations of those previous bands
exist, but has definitely become something new and their own.
All five tracks from Touch the Sound EP were performed, including some new cuts, which are
scheduled for the follow up EP, including standout "You". The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting
Man" was the one and only cover, which was also done by Lake Trout. With Lions' version sounds like if The
Velvet Underground covered it via the early Nico era.
The only disappointment of the night was the lack of a
projection show. From band blog
posts, it seemed that projected visuals would be accompany the performance, but
Mercury Lounge wasn't setup to take advantage of such accompaniment. One looks forward to the (le) Poisson
Rouge (QRO venue review) show scheduled
for early next year when video will be included. The absence of such wasn't a blemish on the performance;
it'd merely be interesting in experiencing the sight with the sound. Next live fix of With Lions can't come
soon enough.
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Fueled with Voodoo Doughnuts, Alcoholic Faith Mission
delivered to a rockin' crowd in Portland.
Those lucky enough to
enter the House of Blues Boston took a spacey journey
that felt like one long dream starting with opening act I Break Horses.
The student-filled O2 Academy in Manchester started heaving
forward the instant the visual art showed "The Cribs" on the backdrop.
