Last Friday night was not only a fabulous night of music at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, it’s also the night I learned no matter how good your camera is, it cannot compete with a low light situation where LED lights flash and smoke machines poot out wafts of condensed water vapor. Nice concert settings, I learned, aren’t always optimal for ill-trained amateur-shutter-bugs.
Small Black was the culprit of said concert tomfoolery, but their set was damn near perfect. Moody, bass-driven and dancier than expected, they drew a large crowd of eager-kids to the front of the room, ready to throw ‘dem hands up and cut loose. Live show translations can be a tad tricky for groups like Small Black, but they were able use a combination of live and looped effects to create something that was both new and familiar at the same time…
Oberhofer did their thing as well, hitting the stage like a goddam roman candle, they didn’t show one single sign of burning out until leaving the stage for good, framed by some screaming young ladies who quickly shuffled back to score an autograph. Brad Oberhofer even managed to do something I’ve never seen done at Local 506 – he ran off the stage, guitar in hand, out the back door, lapped the building (which isn’t easy since it’s wedged right in the middle of a city block,) and came back in the front door. Mixing tried and true “ooo00oo0oo0o” classix with some extremely intriguing new jamz, I think they’re poised to be one of the breakout bands at SXSW this year.
Let’s watch.
Small Black
Oberhofer
