Better Than Middlin'

Ross Currie contributed to this piece.

Admittedly, when we were contacted by Fair to Midland's publicist, we agreed to cover tonight's show at the TLA (yeah, yeah, the Fillmore) without having ever heard a Fair to Midland song, owing solely to the fact that we liked the band's name. (We're big fans of "clever.") Also to the fact that we tend to be supportive of anything non-political that comes out of Texas. So we requested a copy of the band's debut CD and two tickets, and away we went.

Every once in awhile, we hear a major label debut from a band and we think, "Hmmm, if this or that happens, this band could be absolutely huge in another year or two." We don’t like to over-hype bands or albums, but suffice it to say that Fair to Midland’s first wide-release album, Fables From a Mayfly: What I Tell You Three Times is True, hasn’t left our CD changer since we received it last month. Fables is not only Fair to Midland’s first widely-released album, but the debut album for System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian’s Serjical Strike Records (a division of Universal).

The marriage between Tankian and Fair to Midland is one that makes a lot of sense when listening to Fables. Both Fair to Midland and System of a Down carry heavy sounds that blend a number of influences, everything from metal to classical to jazz. The similarities end there, however. Fair to Midland is nowhere near as heavy as System of a Down and, at least as far as we can tell, nowhere near as politically-inclined. We struggled to categorize the band’s sound, as Fair to Midland doesn’t fit cleanly into any one musical category. The closest we can come is to say that Fables tends toward an epic, prog-metal sound, at times sounding like Rush, Queensryche, and some less-prog-but-still-very-orchestrated hard rock bands like Iron Maiden. Sometimes, that’s to the band’s detriment, as Fables comes across at points as being overly-produced and a little too polished, particularly during the viola intro to "Tall Tales Taste Like Sour Grapes." That being said, we were pleasantly surprised by the album and look forward to both their performance and future albums.

The headliner of tonight’s show is The 69 Eyes. They’re a goth band from Finland. Need we say more? Oh, we do? Okay, well, they remind us, in both look and sound, of Danzig. We’re sure to be feeling a little nostalgia for our adolescent goth days during their set. We’ll call them a guilty pleasure waiting to happen. Joining the 69 Eyes and FtM is Night Kills the Day. We confess we hadn’t heard of this band and wouldn’t even know they were on the bill if FtM’s MySpace page hadn’t listed them as part of the tour, but on listening to the few songs we could find on the Internet, we’re optimistic and looking forward to their performance. NKtD carries a heavy Depeche Mode/Joy Division/David Bowie goth/glam influence that we will always indulge. The final band on the bill is Wednesday 13, a “horror punk” band (or at least that’s what Wikipedia tells us). With songs like “American Werewolves in London” (including the lyric “See the children of the night/Destroying humans one by one”) and the looks to match the name and the album titles (Fang Bang and Transylvania 90210), we may just have to try not to look too out of place during their set.

All in all, tonight should prove slightly heavier than Phillyist's normal fare - but there's nothing wrong with heavy, especially when it precedes the word metal. Rock on.

Live Nation Presents:
The 69 Eyes with Wednesday 13, Fair to Midland and Night Kills the Day
TONIGHT, July 10, 2007
8PM (Doors at 7PM)
Fillmore at the TLA (334 South Street)
$17 (Tickets)