Wednesday, August 31; Atomic Cantina (21-and-older), free: Those of you that have ever been in a large-scale school band should be at least somewhat familiar with who I will refer to here as “solo hogs.” These are the kids that take every opportunity to jam-out on their instrument; leaving the rest of the band members to wallow in four-note-melody hell. Oregon's own The Sweater Club is composed of six fresh-faced solo hogs that, fortunately for us, are happy to take turns wailing away on their various instruments, just so long as everybody gets a chance to strut their stuff. I'm not sure how the band's songs stay cohesive, but they do so without wasting a drop of any member's skill. Not since Reel Big Fish's Why Do They Rock So Hard? have skyrocketing brass and alt.rock guitar gotten along so well as on The Sweater Club's debut EP, The Exposition. The “Club” sounds a lot like ska/punk/reggae outfit RX Bandits (which makes sense, considering almost every band member cites the Bandits as an influence). The Sweater Club is wise enough, however, to stay away from the pretentious ambient noise that the Bandits seem to have become recently infatuated with. The boys in TSC, by contrast, are only interested in good, clean, new-school-ska fun. That's exactly what they'll bring to the Atomic Cantina this Wednesday when they'll play with Wide Awake and SPOT. Who the hell knows, maybe some fast-paced skanking will even make an appearance.
