Catching up from Troika Festival

I was only able to catch one night (Friday) of Troika Festival, but I was quite impressed with what I saw, bandwise and festivalwise. I really have to commend the folks behind Troika for putting it together. I've always thought this area was a good candidate for a SXSW-style mult-day festival, but no one, including myself during my Independent days, seemed to figure out a way to make it happen. I always dreamed of having it in all three cities, but logistically it makes more sense to have it in one, and it really seems like Durham has become the musical hub of the Triangle. I spent most of the evening at the Duke Coffeehouse, where I saw The Lodger (above) from Leeds, England, Gray Young from Raleigh, and Durham's Future Kings of Nowhere, who, for some reason were playing as a duo, but still sounded powerful. I really liked The Lodger's angular, angsty pop, and bought one of their CDs. Later I went to Alivia's where it was just too cold to stand outside and watch music. But they had a pretty good fried chicken salad. Check out the videos: (Video removed) (The Lodger)

Gray Young from Mann's World on Vimeo.

(Gray Young)

Future Kings of Nowhere from Mann's World on Vimeo.

(FKON)