Deastro at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (6/18/09)

Detroit's Deastro stopped by 7th Street Entry last night, telling us about the time he grew up in Minneapolis and friendship in his Holy Rollers gang (saving the world and sk8!).

Opening up for them are locals, Telepathos (myspace) and Lazer Forever (myspace). I was excited to check out Telepathos because they listed all the bands I like (Radiohead, MBV, Sonic Youth, The Cure...), and you can hear it in their live set. They lean more towards heavy use of guitars and shoegazing sound, a mix of My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse. I did notice that inbetween their songs, there seems to be long awkward silences. I think it's because the singer/keyboardist have to load up the beats for the next song.

Lazer Forever sounds like classic progressive rock, which is not an insult. They had to change the drum snare on the second song, and played a pretty full set. My two new Californian friends and I were chatting with Noah the drummer earlier and he seems to enjoy his television and movies!

Deastro's Randy Chabot is not what I was expecting, with his Ghost Buster II shirt and uneven cut-out pants and (get this) orange duct taped shoes. Yep, he seems like a pretty cool guy. When he talks between songs, he seems to ramble a stream of conscious.

Deastro Concert Poster, Minneapolis (06/18/09) Deastro at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (06/18/09)

In many ways, the free EPs that I previously mentioned from Deastro is a terrible introduction to the band. That all-instrumental music is basically background music to his real music - which sounds more like intense 80s new wave pop, at least when played live.

After about an hour, their new bassist (I think he was called Andy) exit stage left. Apparently, Minneapolis was his first show and he hadn't learned how to play all the songs. But no one can tell that he messed up, I mean their songs "Parallelogram" and "Toxic Crusaders" sounded alright to me.

The latest news from Deastro is their second single from their forth-coming LP, Moondagger (out on June 23^rd on Ghostly International), is called "Vermillion Plaza".