So it was just a typical Friday night, I was going to watch a different band perform but I showed up early enough to catch the opening act. I grab a drink, find a spot at a table as they were setting up for their performance. I didn’t see many people on stage setting up as I only saw two people. Then after a little bit I start to hear them performing, I wasn’t expecting to hear what I heard as normally I end up seeing bands that are just trying to bring their own touch to hard rock with a little glam rock on the side. Tonight I was just expecting to hear the same style of hard rock, but this 3 piece band surprised me by playing alternative rock with a little grunge feel every now and then.
Now the fun begins, the guitarist is dressed in a suit and tie (but quickly takes the suit jacked off) Ruby is the bassist and lead vocals, when she started playing I heard some people mention “there’s Jessica Rabbit” (sorry, I could see where they’re coming from also). They start out with their own songs and they have a little of a grunge feel, others are more of alternative but it sounded good. They as a group are nice and solid with their playing the only down side to their performance the whole night was when Ruby would hold a note for a period of time you would hear her voice do this squeak thing at the end. As an alternative group it did fit in a couple of spots but in my opinion I think it happened too much and took away from their performance. But other than that you could tell they were having some fun, even had somebody from the audience come up to the stage to talk to the band and dance for them.
Sam E. Fungula (Justin MacSween) is on guitar, you can watch him do a strut across the stage with a little dance here and there. You can see when he gets a feel for the room as his strut becomes more of a little dance from mic to mic. Sam’s timing is bang on and his also has parts in their songs also. You’ll hear him in Mixed Alloy Man as he finishes up that song.
Ruby (Jenna Leeder) as you already know plays bass and is lead vocals. Being lead vocals doesn’t always stop her from having fun and rocking out.
Steven Powell (still needs a name) is on drums and I have to congratulate him on the performance as there’s an interesting thing about this particular venue. The stage is a decent size as you can fit a couple of people complete with monitors and the rest of your equipment with space to move around still. There’s even a riser for a fair size drum kit, normally this is a good thing except here. Apparently this riser is a little worn and the middle supports are non-existent so instead of being able to see the drummer and stuff, here the drummer is on a giant trampoline. The whole time Steven was playing you could see the whole kit bouncing in the middle of the riser, this would be a starting point for Tommy Lee you would think. So as I was waiting for some air time from Steve (or the everything to implode into the middle) he still managed to keep rhythm and sing back up vocals.
So after all of this I had to pick up their demo called Kenetic. This is a 5 song release four out of the five songs are definitely alternative rock, and then there’s “Wake Up” that has kind of country feel to it. Now I wouldn’t list it with other country songs, it would be how Sheryl Crow was in the 90’s (before she did a song with Kid Rock).
The CD had a warm feel to it, I spent half a day driving around listing to it and didn’t get feel the need to change it. I am curious about how some of the songs came together such as Wake Up and Mixed Alloy Man. I would like to know what was happening when they were written, maybe we’ll get a music video for them in the future. I think the song I like from their CD is Rusty but I like how they performed Graffiti as that was when I was able to see them really enjoy playing.
I think Ruby’s Revenge is off to a good start, I’m excited to see how they grow as a band and looking forward to seeing them in the future again. For more information on Ruby’s Revenge check them out on Facebook.
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