On monday, Darlingside played a short set in the Hampden courtyard at UMASS-Amherst as part of a six-band battle of the bands called “Paper Jam”. It certainly didn’t feel like a battle (prizes were never really discussed, nor were the judges not shwasted, nor did they not brandish pictures of rocket ships as their means of “judgement”), but rather an excuse to make music and merriment. The atmosphere was lovely, the other bands were fantastic, and you know somebody above is looking out for you when your gig just happens to be located next to a bona-fide vat of trail mix being aggressively doled out to the masses by people with no association to the event. It’s so collegiate it hurts. But the point is that we were written up as part of the UMass paper’s coverage of the event, and Dave Coffey had some very nice things to say:
Fourth in the lineup was the insanely talented string-rock quintet Darlingside from Northampton.… With their distinctive instrument choices, Darlingside seamlessly melded hook-drenched classical-rock melody lines with substantially infectious grooves, thanks in no small part to arguably the meatiest drums one has ever heard played under a string section. Even more impressive is that despite the overwhelming instrumental presence, the vocals were, if anything, even more noteworthy, as they resonated clearly and truly without being buried by the amazing instrumental skills. Arguably, Hampden Courtyard has never heard such serene and well executed harmonized vocals, much less from a quintet of string rockers.
What a kind, kind man. In other news, the Darlingside household has been Spring Cleaned! Springed Clean? Clean Sprung? Anyway it looks great, and the leaves are coming back in, and what a wonderful world, and all you need is love. Whoop!
3 Comments
May all of your reviewers write like that dude.
not to mention an incredibly catchy and well-executed cover of horrible pop music. dude. so good.
Now that he mentioned it, Sam does play the meatiest drums.