Daylight's For The Birds, Snowden @ Union Hall - 23 September 2006

I went to Union Hall on Saturday mostly to see Daylight's For The Birds for the first time since I saw them play at the first EAR FARM Presents... show back in June. They played an excellent set of their brand of updated shoegaze and impressed me with a few songs I hadn't yet heard. The crowd of people, clearly mostly there to see Snowden, seemed to be enjoying Daylight's from what I could tell. For good reason too...the band as a whole showed definite growth towards a more perfectly unified sound. Not to say they weren't as excellent the first time I saw them but I could tell that they've spent more time on stages together since then and were very tight. In a live setting their songs might well come close to eliciting an out of body experience with the multiple layers of synth, guitars, spot on percussion, and vocals. I can't stress enough how fantastic Amanda's voice is and how sweet it is to see, to hear, such a massive sounding band in such a small venue.

I've heard many great things about Snowden and their debut album but I'd never really given their music much of a chance before seeing them live on Saturday. Things I loved: their first two songs, their enthusiasm, and their overall sound. Not so much: the lyrics, the (somewhat) weak vocals, and repetitive drumming. Don't get me wrong, Snowden was a fun band to see live and I'd suggest catching them if you have a chance...I just didn't get the feeling that they're quite as special as some people seem to think.