It’s October in Kalamazoo. It’s starting to get colder now, but it was pretty warm out a week ago. Good time for a show when it’s the same temperature inside and out. On one of those lovely nights, I attended a show at the Strutt.

I walked in when That’s Blood was playing, and was kind of bummed that I only caught a couple of their songs. After they were done, I asked a friend how the beginning of the set was. He informed me that they had only played a few before I had arrived. Meaning I didn‘t miss much, but their set was strangely short. Although, they were grabbing with what I heard: a thrashy new school hardcore vibe going on. The vocalist was fairly animated and the lead guitarist involved people in the performance. I had never seen them before, but hopefully they will become another one of Kalamazoo’s lovely regulars. Plus they get mad points for staying and hanging out for the rest of the show when they played first (and probably had school the next day).

Radiator Hospital from Grand Rapids set up afterward on the floor in front of the stage. No Masters, No Stages, apparently. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, I love Radiator Hospital, with their surfy punky low-fi love songs, but it was just not their night. They kept having countless technical difficulties with awkward silences, guitar tuning issues, and the drums shifting. But when they finally got around to playing a song, I forgot about the awkward-ness and had an awesome time.

Summer Pledge played 3rd. Hailing from D-town, this quintet of 3 guitars, a bass, and drums played a miraculous mess of instrumental complexities including melodic vocals. They played, acted, and looked professional-good lighting and a nice performance. They played their whole first album.

Then, Daniel Frances Doyle. AKA one talented human being. With his guitar loops (most songs several loops) and then drums on top of that, and then vocals on top of that, SOMEHOW he plays a complete musical number with no help at all. His songs are technical and well organized, with build up and breaks in just the right places. I don’t even understand how he controls the loops with one foot and the bass drum with the other. It was all very magical. A great way to end the night.