May Birthdays 
THE CONCRETE RIVALS EAT THEIR WEIGHT IN SNAKES CD REVIEW, AND (EVENTUALLY) TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES, EACH OTHER, THEIR MUSIC, THEIR LATEST TOUR – BY NOEL
The Rivals are Jay Ekis on guitar, Jen Wells on bass and Ben Roy on drums.
I’ve seen The Concrete Rivals perform twice, once at the 2012 Instro Summit in Chapel Hill, NC, and then again at the 2012 BrewFest in Pottsville,PA. After seeing them at the Summit last May, what would make me drive into the wild mountains of Pennsylvania coal country to see them again? Well, Pottsville is actually just over an hour south-east from where I live. And it was a beer festival! Actually, the reason is simply these are a great group of people, and I really, really, really like their music.
EAT THEIR WEIGHT IN SNAKES
is a full-length record with twelve original tunes. If one word describes the music on this CD it’s “driven”. But one word isn’t close to adequate. The music on this CD is hard-driving, fast-paced, tightly played, raucous, at times complex and at others simply bold. Most tunes have some wonderfully well-placed pauses in the action that act like a break in a thriller, to let the audience catch their breath. It’s aggressive music, driven hard by Ben Roy’s powerful drumming and Jen Wells’ stunning bass. It is music to party hard to. It’s only road-trip music if you don’t mind getting lots of speeding tickets, because the music keeps pushing you to drive faster and faster. If you’re gonna drive to this music, use your cruise-control; you’ll need it. Consider yourself warned. Cruise control saved my license at least twice driving back from the 2012 Instro Summit while playing this CD.
Is it surf music? Yes, but it isn’t trad-surf. It’s probably as far from the 1’st Wave as anything today, right out there pushing against and expanding the boundaries of the music. It fits, I think, in the same musical place as Destination: Earth!, Kill, Baby … Kill!, The Deadbeats, and Daikaiju. That’s a great place to be if you’re really good at it, and these three musicians are really very good at it.
The tunes on the CD have both rhythm and lead guitar parts, so obviously Jay is playing both parts. When performing live, he has nowhere to hide, and he makes combining the lead and rhythm parts look seamless and sound just right. Jen plays bass with all ten fingers. She flies over the strings at a breathtaking pace, each note in sync with the lead, or playing her bass like it was a drum kit. Jen plays bass like she’s always soloing. Ben’s drums drive the impressive beat of the Concrete Rivals. I hope he remembers to breathe. His drumming is tight, precise, complex, complementary and infectious, not too much or too little. Just right.
I would say Eat Their Weight in Snakes is a record to party to, hard. Got a group of friends together for a bash and need something to make everyone jump up and dance? This record will rock the house. Many of the rhythmic changes will trip up the unwary. The Rivals can turn on a dime any time and any place in a tune, and they do, irregularly. Just when you think you’re safely in the groove, everything changes. Sudden stops, sudden acceleration, jumping to hyper-speed in the middle of a relaxing moment; all these and more are scattered throughout every tune like musical mines waiting to blow your mind. Lots of fun. It is possible to stand still during their music, but it takes enormous will-power.
One other thing about Eat Their Weight in Snakes; it’s not a short CD. The twelve tunes are longer than the average for surf. Yet every time I play the CD, the end of every tune and even end of the CD catches me by surprise. It’s over too soon and I always want more.
The Concrete Rivals are currently on tour and very busy, so the interview is incomplete. I’ll add it later. For now, here’s a link to their schedule.
—This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.
Last edited: Oct 05, 2012 13:36:46
