The Sounds @ The House of Blues, Dallas

Amy and I went to see The Sounds over at the HOB in Dallas tonight after helping set up her office during lunch and then taking DART over to the State Fair for a rain-shortened visit. The first time we saw The Sounds was actually way back in September 2003 at Trees when they were an opening act for another band we were seeing. Was a great show then so we were hopeful for another good one tonight.

We got to the venue just as the first band, Foxy Shazam, was finishing. Semi Precious Weapons was next and they were a total trip. Lots of energy and a base player who spent most of his time laying back on his shoulders kicking his legs up in the air. Plus he was wearing a blanket/poncho thing that seemed like it would be tricky to play guitar in. The lead singer made an on-stage costume change, so we got to see "him" in two pairs of shiny silver ankle boots. Was not expecting the opening acts to be in heels.

After 30 minutes of deafening loud, punishing dance music that made it impossible to talk between bands, The Sounds took the stage with their Swedish New Wave assault. They wasted no time getting everybody into it with their very "danceable" beats and rhythms with hook-heavy choruses. Maja, the swedish blonde lead singer, was simply delectable in her black old school swimsuit, leather jacket and heels, which is rather remarkable footwear given how much she jumped around stage. Not to mention climbing up on the drum riser and crawling down to the front row all while effortlessly carrying along their bouncy tunes that get everybody hopping. The main show ended in a similar fashion to the one a Trees six years ago, with the drummer and two other members of the band doing some crazy Japanese-style drumming on a couple of large electronic drum pads. A great show and amazingly my State Fair root beer and tater twister remained settled nicely despite all of the bouncing and moving to the music!