Tonight, Hotung plays host to a few angsty hours of indie and post-hardcore rock, as AppleJam brings three relatively unknown bands to campus. The show will feature local band The Receiving End of Sirens, as well as Lux Courageous and In the Arms of Providence. Although the bands vary somewhat in style, it will certainly be a concert for all the Converse-wearing, button-pinning, blogging, thrift-shopping emo kids on the Tufts campus.
The Receiving End of Sirens, or TREOS, is tonight's featured band whose debut album will be released on April 26 by Triple Crown Records. The band consists of five members: Andrew Cook on drums; Brendan Brown on bass and vocals; Casey Crescenzo on keyboard, guitar, and vocals; Alex Bars on guitar and vocals, and Nate Patterson on guitar. The members, all aged 19 or 20, describe themselves as a group "dedicated ... to making music that we love." Artistically influenced by bands ranging from Radiohead to Bjork to Cave In, TREOS associates itself with post-hardcore and experimental indie rock, and uses heartbeat-like drumming, echoing vocals, and solid distortion to create an unusual intensity of sound. Paul Farris, one of the organizers of Applejam, said of TREOS, "I can see them blowing up. We saw them play, the record is going to come out in April, and there's a lot of hype surrounding them in the rock scene."
Also gracing the stage at Hotung tonight are Lux Courageous and In the Arms of Providence. From catchy pop-rock songs to more complicated rock ballads, the Long Island band claims, "Every single song sounds different." In December 2001, Adam Laporto and PJ Tepe, the founding members, decided that music was in a state of crisis and that something needed to be done to change the face of modern rock. So they recruited two more like-minded members and Lux Courageous was formed. Their music tends to be energetic and speedy, with full guitars and staccato bass, and the sound can be compared to that of Dashboard Confessional, The Get Up Kids, and Phantom Planet with its slightly punk drum beat and clear harmonies. Their album, "Reasons That Keep the Ground Near," is also available from Triple Crown Records.
In the Arms of Providence, the third band on the roster, is a melodic post-hardcore band from Portland, ME. They deviate slightly from TREOS and Lux Courageous in employing a heavier style that slips gracefully in and out of both pure hardcore rock and emo. In The Arms of Providence describes its music as the "mixing of melody with dissonance," creating "a new sound of intense emotional contrast." They are not what one would call easily accessible, as the singer's vocals sometimes fall into the category of screaming, but for open-minded listeners who want to move past Dashboard Confessional's generic emo-whinings, this might be a band worth listening to. Their album, "Left My Voicebox in a Seaside Town" is available from Muscle City Records.
In general, AppleJam differs from Tufts' Concert Board in that they try to get local, lesser-known bands to play before they hit it big, rather than arranging for already famous bands to perform on campus. Previous bands that have graced the AppleJam stage include Arcade Fire and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, both of which have gone on to great success in the music industry. Tonight's concert brings a cacophonous ensemble of artists descended from the post-hardcore and emo generation, so concert-goers should put on their brooding faces and be prepared to fall headbang-long into a night of independent music.
