90.7 FM WXIN Rock Hunt Reigns Supreme at the Spot

“I wasn’t expecting a college battle of the bands to be this good,” is a statement I heard from no fewer than eight concert-goers at The Spot Underground during the first night of 90.7 FM’s annual Rock Hunt.

One of these individuals, Tom Bogart, a student from the URI Providence campus, popped into The Spot after hearing the powerful riffs erupt all the way down Pine Street after a night class. He lingered after the show, smoking a Camel, and talked to me about his impressions of the show. “It was loud; I was feeling the sound!”

“And three bucks?” Bogart said, tossing up three fingers to show it. “Sure — even if it’s bad, at that price who cares? But it was fantastic. Loved Chameleon Culture, especially.”

Bogart’s words resonated with a few of his nearby friends, who nodded in agreement. In some ways, Tom strikes you as the essential rock-loving demographic with all the Millennial alt-lover calling cards: distressed denim jacket, Crystal Castles t-shirt, wrinkled chinos and beat-up white Chucks. His cavalier attitude about the scene only solidifies that.

On this particular evening, Tom and The Spot Underground shared a moment with any number of off-the-beaten path rock dives — a scene that wouldn’t be out of place in Brooklyn, West Los Angeles, Columbus, Berlin, Brussels or St. Petersburg.

A good concert was had. A solid show.

The bands brought energy, the crowd gave it back, and now everyone’s tugging at a death stick outside, nursing the melancholia that sets after a great succession of sets finally comes down.

Reasonably strong showings came about from the first and the last bands in the opening night’s set: The Callouts and Rat Ruckus. The Callouts brought a pop-punk inspired sound that while starting out brash and somewhat disjointed, coalesced by the band’s second track into a decent popcorn-punk experience that served as a solid opener.

Closers Rat Ruckus brought an intriguing sonic landscape of folk-inspired sounds to their set, incorporating a healthy dose of mandolin into an evening that had previously been defined by its enthusiasm and openness to prog.

Hadean, the second band, allowed me something I don’t often get at battle of the bands: a radically challenging intellectual experience. Ostensibly prog-metal, the band layered a fantastic landscape of heavy metal and jazz-inspired moments. During a short conversation with Dan R. Howard, the band’s keyboard player, he noted that his experience in composing film scores “definitely comes out in the arrangement” of the band’s manifold sound. “It’s something we consider in the concept,” he said. This attention to detail was readily apparent in Haden’s set. All in all, it could be characterized as nothing short of a virtuoso display of talent.

The night’s penultimate showing was undoubtedly its most entertaining in many respects. “We’re trying to bring energy, that’s the key,” said Alec Gaston, lead singer of Chameleon Culture. “That’s through the sound, through the stage, through everything.” Alec offered calm, composed, if somewhat evasive answers to a number of questions I had stashed in my arsenal of usual pre-show queries.

Perhaps that’s an indictment of the reviewer, but I’m left to wonder if it wasn’t part of playing with the expectations game pre-concert that truly deft showmen are able to accomplish. I left the interview even more curious about the character of the band’s sound, as I was determined not to let any preview listenings of the bands color my concert experience. Much to my enthusiastic surprise, Alec and co. came out swinging with a unique, electric sound and on-stage presence that really defined the evening.

History was also on the mind of some of the performers. WXIN’s rock hunt has been a mainstay of the scene since the 1980s, and can claim to be one of the earliest Rock Hunts in the East. “It’s great to be part of something with that much emotion and history,” Gaston of Chameleon Culture said post-show, after a wild, jumping set that brought the evening to a fever pitch, undoubtedly being the raison d’être behind Tom and the cadre of 20-somethings chewing on cigarettes and nodding ubiquitously following the Rock Hunt’s first night.

The WXIN Rock Hunt will be hosting another show April 14th at The Spot Underground in Providence at 8pm. The Finals will be held April 21st.