Report: Surfer Blood Live in Boston

The indie buzzband descended on the Great Scott venue (in Allston, Mass.) on March 2 and nearly justified the buzz. The potential's there, but the jury's still out.

By Wyndham Lewis

West Palm Beach is up there with Sedona or Provo on the list of cities likely to hatch the next hot indie rock band. In the case of Surfer Blood, the mix of sunshine, strip malls and nursing homes seems to have provided the surprisingly appropriate environs to create Astro Coast, a terrific, riff-driven debut album.

So what does a South Florida band, that counts its existence in months rather than years, do to distinguish itself as a live act worthy of multiple sold-out club gigs like the one recently played at Great Scott in Allston?

Having seen this recipe of young band, limited material and inexperience before, the possibility was there for anything from disaster to greatness. And, as is frequently the case, the crowd was treated to something in between. The set opener was the album's lead track Floating Vibes, a song that hints at the heavy riff, light vocal approach of Sonic Youth or Built to Spill's ‘90s output.

Despite the fact that they likely spent it in Huggies, the early ‘90s is obviously well plumbed territory for the band. In several ways they recall early Pavement. Surfer Blood's songs have a similar reliance on guitar, although the lyrics and structures are more conventional. Both bands would look equally at home getting out of the van with tennis racquet bags rather than guitar cases and both rely heavily on a percussionist/screamer to provide the animation and entertainment for the rest of the crew. Surfer Blood's resident wild man, Marcos Marchesani, looks like he was plucked from the evolutionary chain somewhere between Frank Zappa, Magic Dick, Jim Martin and Gallagher. More than Bob Nastanovich, his counterpart in Pavement, live Marchesani adds a significant dimension to the songs with his percussion work.

Take It Easy, which would sound at home on a Vampire Weekend or Shins set list, followed and the band's confidence and comfort was almost chart-able as the evening progressed. Lead singer JP Pitts' voice is slightly huskier live, but in most respects, Astro Coast lays out a true sound from which the band does not significantly deviate. Harmonix was given an extended feedback session at the end, but it seemed like more of a way to add time to a short set than anything.

Playing and singing his back-up vocals on Twin Peaks and Anchorage seemed to wake up guitarist Tom Fekete who spent much of the set's first few songs remarkably expressionless, as if he were bored with math class. When he playfully butted heads with Pitts mid song, he cemented the kid brother quality his looks portray. Playing the guitar intro from Weezer's Undone (The Sweater Song) drew enthusiastic hoots from the crowd that died quickly when the tune was aborted. It was a pretty amusing moment, that hinted at a sense of humor and engagement that will hopefully become more clearly articulated as the band's identity and experience grow.

By the time they played Swim, with its Boston-worthy power chords, the looked like they belonged on stage and were enjoying themselves, and the crowd was rapt.

So I guess the answer to the question raised above is - Surfer Blood definitely has the potential, and the road ahead looks good, but we'll see.

Surfer Blood is currently on tour - they'll be all over SXSW, doing at least 10 shows. Go to their MySpace page for dates.

[Photo Credit: Chris Jennings]