Summarizing the largest homegrown one-night musical event in New Mexico is admittedly a tough thing to do.
After all, 80 bands and 18 stages is just too much for one person to digest in a little more than four hours. But the three bands I did take in during Saturday's Fall Crawl proved to me that local music is alive and kicking.
When I arrived at the Anodyne for Los Brown Spots' 9 p.m. performance, the band had already started and the crowd was beginning to warm up. The band is relatively new to the scene - they've been practicing for almost two years and performing live only since the spring - but they show signs of being potential mainstays.
Though they've been dubbed "acid jazz," I found their sound to be broader than that description. Plucky guitar and funky bass, mixed with my vote for the best use of a cello in a groove act, helped pay homage to the house that Parliament built. But its neo-funk and horn-driven collusion put Los Brown Spots in league with newer beat-sensitive groups such as Galactic and the OM Trio.
Since I just had to stay for Los Brown Spots' entire set, I was late again, this time to catch Rage Against Martin Sheen - one of Albuquerque's most underrated bands - at the Moonlight Lounge. The tongue-in-cheek trio filled the tiny lounge with a wall of sound provided by the band's twin bass attack and the soaring vocals of Steve Bell. But the band's signature lies with Bell and the most ripping sound to ever blast out of a bass guitar and amplifier.
"I've gone through a lot of different processors and pedals and amps and I've finally found something that I'm happy with," Bell said. "It started in 1990 when our drummer and I started a band. When I was writing things on my four track, I could come up with bass lines but I couldn't play guitar so I just put distortion on my bass."
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Bell admitted that the band was an on and off project and that a recent illness prevented him from singing material the band had readied for the gig, but the band showed no rust and thrilled the crowd with a tumultuous set of indefinable gems.
Hands down, the longest line into any club, was the one for Banana Joe's where a DJ spun music and Blunt Society, among others, played upstairs. I tried to finagle my way in but it didn't work, and the two-block long line just seemed too daunting for me.
But the final stop of the night proved to be something special, and not just for the fans of Fall Crawl.
Stoic Frame was set to headline the Launchpad's evening of events, and the band likely had more on the line than most bands on this night. The band flew in a Warner Brothers A&R representative who had shown recent interest in the band. The representative also doubles as a major music promoter in the Austin, Texas, market, which has recently become a hotbed for new music.
"He wanted to see how we impress the people in our home town, so we took the initiative and flew him in here," Stoic Frame bassist Todd Sanchez said. "At first he was a little mysterious, then after we played it was a whole different thing. He was stoked."
And it was clear why he would be.
Stoic Frame's incendiary set began to the cheers of the hyped-up crowd and by the time it was over, fans were screaming and falling all over each other for more - forcing the band to extend its set by one song. People sang in unison with lead vocalist/guitarist Keith Sanchez, which is impressive for a national band, much less a local group.
"Musically speaking, we thought it was one of our most sloppy performances in a while," Sanchez said. "But all we needed was some inspiration."
Sanchez said though he and his fellow band members were excited about the visit, they would take the major label exposure in stride - for now.
"Up until now, we've not been saying much," Sanchez said. "We've done this for nine years and we've been gigging for eight. We've played probably 500 times and been told so many empty promises."
Stoic Frame will take another step forward when it plays the Latin Rock Alliance Sept. 29 in Austin, where upwards of 100,000 people - and more Warner Brothers representatives - are expected to attend.
It may not be long before Stoic Frame goes the way of The Shins, Scared of Chaka and The Eyeliners, all of whom have been signed to national labels, so seeing the band soon should be a priority for local music lovers.
If you didn't make it out to Fall Crawl, kick yourself, you deserve it. Or better yet, don't wait until Spring Crawl to make an appearance on the scene.
