It was the first night of a two-week tour for the Lawrence, KS foursome, Rooftop Vigilantes; a Tuesday night, where the streets were pretty barren of any signs of life given the cold temp outside. But it was toasty inside the Hi Dive where the group was setting up.
And being a Tuesday, the crowd numbers in Denver weren’t quite as high as those who caught Rooftop Vigilantes during the group’s performance at the Scion Garage Fest last year, but were enthusiastic all the same.
As the band plowed into its brand of thrash candy, one couple danced a twist as if they were at The Cavern circa 1966.
Songs bounced back and foe in style, playing hopscotch in the more aggressive boxes and then jumping over to the happy, bop-your-head sound, from “Fists of Gary” and “Seth No Jump” off the upcoming release, Real Pony Glue, to “Kitty Vacant” off of Who Stole My Zoo? (The last of which was, by the way, available at the merch table on cassette. Even the merch has a charming, retro sound. Love it.)
At times Zach let his octaves stretch as thin as skin and as taut as a tightrope, while Oscar’s head moved to the beat of a bobble head doll. The two played hot potato with the bass and lead guitar, switching back and forth between songs.
Hanna would often smile at their antics, grinning as if she had an inside joke to share, but didn’t want to interrupt the flow. Side note: I do wish her keyboards were turned up just a bit since it was she that infused the Vigilantes’ vintage sound.
At one point Zach smiled and admitted, while pulling a guitar bound together with duct tape from a case on the floor, that his dinner didn’t settle so well. Looking out into the darkness he asked, “Do you ever scream so loud you almost throw up?”
Oscar answered for us, “That would have been totally punk rock.”
“Yeah,” Zach replied. “But I had Indian food. Not sure how great that would have been.”
Hey, at least he didn’t complain once about the altitude.
Rooftop Vigilantes is planning to be in Austin for SXSW 2011. In the meantime, make it out to one of their shows if the band is coming your way.
And feel free to download a few MP3 of “Fists of Gary”:
http://goldestegg.com/mp3dump/RV_FistsofGary.mp3
Remaining Rooftop Vigilantes tour dates:
Jan 10 – Sacramento, CA @ The Hub
Jan 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Hemlock
Jan 12 – Oakland, CA @ The Uptown
Jan 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Five Star Bar
Jan 14 – San Diego, CA @ Che Cafe
Jan 15 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Dressing Room
Jan 16 – Tucson, AZ @ Dry River Collective
Jan 19 – Austin, TX @ Beerland
Jan 20 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
