Matt Embree - rx bandits
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Rx Bandits,
Zechs Marquise and
The Builders and the Butchers
March 18, 2010
The Culture Room
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Review by Diana Poussin
Photos by Ashleigh Ahern
The evening of March 18th was not a sold-out show and desperate fan girls were not screeching outside, but the night brought the greatest showcase of novelty and talent the Culture Room has seen in a while. While the few anxious fans huffed and puffed on their cigarettes outside, Zechs Marquise, The Builders and the Butchers, and Rx Bandits sound checked inside with their armament of drums and maracas.
Zechs Marquise charmed the crowd with their psychedelic drum solos and booming bass rhythms, the perfect opener to the likes of the Bandits. These El Paso, Texas natives have reinvented instrumental music; their spontaneity entrances even those who are unfamiliar with their sketchy, trippy bass lines. Mathew Wilkson, the quirky lead guitarist, promised a new album by the summer and revealed that much of their set has never even been recorded. Wilkson attracted much attention as he twisted and shimmied through their set, but it was drummer Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez who braved the crowd inches from the ledge of the stage, a territory seldom explored by stereotypically shy drummers. The dazed audience fell into the wild
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, drums, Zechs Marquise
music and watched with glazed eyes as Marcel smashed and beat against his drums and broken cymbals. These grimy Texans surpassed expectations as they closed their set with a new unnamed song, accompanied by the crowd's clapping along to bassist Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez’s riffs.
As if that was not enough, The Builders and the Butchers, a folksy, indie band from Portland, Oregon, waltzed on stage carrying a tiny banjo and plenty of maracas for the crowd. With Ryan Sollee as their soulful vocalist, these butchers did not disappoint and even had the frigid boys on the second floor swaying and praising Ryan’s raspy voice. The drummers — yes drummers — Ray Rude and Paul Seely, were a sight for sore eyes, the real-life depiction of every groupie’s fantasies. When Sollee summoned the crowd to “raise their chins and howl,” Rude and Seely massacred their drums in perfect unison, with a passion that had every single female weak at the knees. With trumpets, mandolins, and their tender, country lyrics, the Builders and the Butchers got the crowd rowdy and jumpy for a 40-minute wait for the dearest bandits of all.
Matthew Wilkson, Zechs Marquise
As the crowd began to get antsy, Rx Bandits finally made it out in all their glory. These punk, ska, alternative, reggae weavers from California have managed to breed a following around the country and in South America with their fierce political views. Matt Embree, vocals and god figure, is charming and possesses the finest talent to induce the spirit of any crowd with his beard and seducing voice. The band played a long set that seemed to pass by in breadths, with the threatening push and pull of the mosh pit. It was such a craze of old and new songs, of planned and unplanned jam sessions, and an exciting encore of "Decrescendo," their anthem. While some tried to dance, others tried to fight the sick addiction that is the bandits, the sick addiction that renders it impossible to say goodnight.
Paul Seely and Alex Ellis,
The Builders and The Butchers
With hugs that smelled of smoke and sweat, the fans settled down, everyone a little bug eyed but seemingly satisfied. Not everyone can make it pleasurable for those who like to get down at a show. Rx Bandits recruited acts with the same creative magnitude they possess, and there was not one dull moment amidst this eclectic gathering.
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