The first Friday in September and I’ve headed to Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood to see a show at a club in the basement of Neumo’s called Barboza. I was invited to photograph and review a quartet from Philly called Bleeding Rainbow.
Bleeding Rainbow are Rob Garcia — vocals and guitar, Sarah Everton — vocals and bass, Greg Frantz — drums and Al Creedon — lead guitar. This power quartet packs a punch that’s spiked with some fiery moonshine.
Though the sound mix wasn’t great (I couldn’t hear the vocals well enough over the guitars), Bleeding Rainbow plays a pop punkish music complete with lovely two part harmony between lead vocalist Sarah and guitarist Al. I heard elements of The Ramones and a good dose of sixties psychedelia. The contrast between Sarah’s endless charisma and the high energy antics of Al Creedon added to the energy of this show. Al Creedon showed he’s as much a master on the guitar as any of the legends and added spark to the performance when he jabbed his guitar into the speakers before yanking it back again and tossing it above his head. Both he and drummer (who slammed the skins so hard the floor shook)Greg had long hair that they kept whipping about and that only added to the band’s charm.
I stuck around to see the headliner, Bleached, another punk pop quartet, but from LA. Bleached is fronted by three women, sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin (guitars and vocals) and Micayla Grace on see through bass. The lone dude in the band is drummer Jonathan Safley.
I believe it’s Jennifer who sings lead and she is loaded up with charm oozing from every fiber of her being. All three women sported long hair that whipped in front of their faces as they churned out power chords and belted out wonderful three-part harmonies. In their music I heard elements of Kinks, Ramones (they covered the Ramones “Today My Love, Tomorrow the World”). Following The Ramones song they played The Misfits “Hybrid Moments.” They did both songs justice. During “Hybrid Moments,” Jennifer shed her guitar and emoted into the mic. Did I mention she’s absolutely charming?
There was a ton of energy in this band both musically and in their on stage performance. I highly recommend both bands. They were both enthusiastically received from the snugly packed crowd who ventured downstairs to this tiny venue.