Martin Rubashov – “Black Elk”: The most striking thing about this song may be the vocals. Full of metaphor and power, the song fits my mood this evening well – prior to taking on this article I was shuffling my iTunes, alternating between dreamy current songs and powerful rock songs with edge and nostalgia. It should be noted that the song is a duet though it may not sound like it. The guest is none other than In Flames’ own Anders Fridén. This would be a good song to kick off a show with – a sense of anticipation lasts the entire song, never quite resolving.

Miami Horror – “Leila”: The melody here is a little familiar to me, but that’s alright – the context is unique to Miami Horror. The modern disco tune is an appropriate prelude to some of the bands I’ll be seeing tonight. I’m two for two on randomly clicking songs to write about on this blog, when it comes to matching my mood. The band bio compares the group to Talking Heads, though I might add I hear a bit of Capital Cities here as well.

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Torn in Two – “Devil Inside”: Back to the loud end of this musical evening with this song. What can I say? This song put me in the mood to listen to some Papa Roach, which rarely happens. I’m not joking, I went on Spotify and played “Getting Away With Murder” right after the conclusion of this song. But seriously, this song has radio rock written all over it and Two In Two has the musical chops to back it up. Also, thanks to Josh Cassill from Ohio On Hi because if he hadn’t commented on a Facebook thread that he had no idea why these guys aren’t huge I probably wouldn’t have listened.

Phantoms – “Been Here Before”: The intro to this song is deceptively disjointed. What sounds like a random pile of vocal stylings all sounds very deliberate once that beat kicks in, and the song continues to build upon that foundation, ramping up the cool factor until the track reaches a resolution in the last thirty seconds. That last bit of percussion kicking in has an aura of satisfaction that is an easy transition into just about any other dance song.

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