The Nein, Annuals and Tiger Bear Wolf at Kings

Last night I finally got the chance to see three bands I've heard great things about, and I'm happy to say they all lived up to expectations. Greensboro's Tiger Bear Wolf, Raleigh's buzzband Annuals and The Nein from Chapel Hill all played the second night of the WKNC benefit at Kings. Tiger Bear Wolf is bluesy, intelligent Southern rock, kind of in the same vein as All Night (also from Greensboro). They were probably my favorite band of the evening. Check out their video (below). Annuals have been all over the place lately, and they deserve every bit of praise they've gotten. It's amazing to see a band so young be so good and so driven about what they're doing. I think they're destined for massive fame and a very quick rise to the top. I just hope they can keep their heads on straight when their world changes overnight. Here are two clips. Please note that Annuals have a LOT of stuff on stage and the show was packed, so it was difficult to get a clear shot of any of them. The final band was The Nein, which includes Finn Cohen and Robert Biggers from one of my favorite local bands, The White Octave, and Chuck Johnson from a variety of bands/projects including Spatula. According to their Myspace, Dale Flattum (Steel Pole Bathtub, and the artist behind the "Tooth" paintings)is also in the band, but unless I'm just totally blind, he wasn't on stage with them last night (and, no, I didn't drink any Sparks last night). They were angular and noisy with some Gang of Four elements. My friend Karen said they reminded her of 999, with whom I'm not that familiar. Maybe they called themselves The Nein in homage to 999 (and, yes, I know that "nein" actually means "no"). Regardless, I got two videos -- one only a partial video -- of them. They also happened to be the only band of whom I got some fairly good pictures. See all the photos here.

Thunderlip, The Dynamite Brothers and Grappling Hook

I made up for missing Thunderlip last month by seeing them Friday, Dec. 29, at Kings. They put on a fine show, but somehow weren't as exciting as the last time I saw them. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. I can't really put my finger on the reason. Dynamite Brothers, on the other hand, blew my socks off like always. I seriously believe this is the tightest band currently performing on the local rock scene. check out their cover of Superbad. (Sorry for the unusually jerky camera angles on this one. I was trying to insert my earplugs and record at the same time.) I only caught part of Grappling Hook, and didn't get a chance to record them. But I can tell you that they're made up of The Torch Marauder and a couple of folks from Analogue. Didn't do much for me, but, as I said, I only caught part of them.