Evening in Red - Live @ GBS Detroit

Evening in Red

Live @ GBS Detroit
self-released; 2014

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Hailing from a small town in Michigan Evening in Red is a three-piece band that released a live album appropriately titled Live @ GBS Detroit.  All the music on the album was recorded live in one take at Groovebox Studios. I would say most people have an ambivalent relationship with live albums. It’s great hearing a band in their rawest form but there's also that sleek production which is vacant. That seems to be the case with Live @ GBS Detroit. You get a general idea of what the band sounds like but there are certain aesthetics such as a muddy low end and little separation of instruments, which adversely affects their visceral impact.

Musically, the band is a pretty straightforward alternative act with a couple of deviations. They definitely have some chemistry and click a number of times throughout their performance. The lead singer had a ubiquitous tone that has been prevalent in hard rock acts for the last 20 years. He sometimes goes into that post Eddie Vedder hyperbolic masculine style that you see bands like Nickelback and Creed imitate. That being said, he does wear a couple of different hats and he sounds different depending on what song they are playing.

They open with “Reach Out,” which has its roots in reggae and ska. It’s a throwback to some of the older material from Sublime and also one of the highlights in the batch. I’m pretty sure it was a crowd favorite. “Peaches On Monday” is a good tune that combines jazz and rock. The band kicks out a number of inventive riffs and I thoroughly enjoyed the vocal performance although the effect he had on his voice made it occasionally sound like it was digitally distorting. The band knocks out a couple more decent tracks with “Until My Thought Ran Down” and “ Pieces.”

Live albums - love them or hate them they exist and Evening In Red made a pretty decent one. The concepts and ideas they put forth aren’t the most original but there are more than enough people out there who will embrace it. 

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