Saturday Night at Rancho Relaxo
| Though on a much smaller scale than SXSW and decidedly more Canadian, NXNE operates on the same concept as its bigger brother—offering a chance for up-and-coming bands to be heard and for music industry types to hear them. Wildebeest recording artists the Metalunas made the cross-country flight from their home in Vancouver and were featured on an eclectic bill that included two girls and a guy from San Francisco who played better as performance artists than musicians, a local art/alternative rock band, Baltimore's sultans of swank, the Swiv-O-Matics, and our boys, the Metalunas. | |
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Due to some instrument problems with the first band, the program somehow got ahead of schedule—something unheard of at large musical festivals. This was both an advantage and a curse: it allowed the boys to play longer than the usual 40 minutes allotted to each band, but it also meant that anyone who showed up to hear them at 11 p.m., their regularly scheduled time, only heard the last 3 or 4 songs in the set. |
| Here's the newest Metaluna, Shawn (a.k.a. "Luigi"), laying down a lick on the bass. Note the manual dexterity! |  |
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Guitarist Mark Brodie also charmed the crowd with a few vocal numbers including "Little G.T.O." and "The Cat Came Back." He also regaled the enthusiastic audience with an instrumental version of the "Scooby Doo" theme song. |
| It was hot and steamy inside Rancho Relaxo, and drummer Rod was working up a major sweat. But what got him really steamed was when the crowd repeatedly called for him to play "Wipe Out." Good sports that they are, the boys eventually acquiesced. |  |