Mates Of State and !!! at Harlow's in Sac CA

Music:

I'm hoping to see Mates of State this Monday at Harlow's in midtown Sacramento. I saw them years ago at The Derby in Los Angeles and wrote a review of the show for No-fi Magazine. They were very high energy and it well worth watching them live, as the dynamics of their back and forth ping-pongish singing style is quite engaging. I have only been to Harlow's one other time, a few weeks a go, on August 26th where I caught  band I had not listened to much. The band was chk chk chk, also know as !!!. I was desperate for some fun and what I had heard of them seemed like they'd put on an exciting show. And they did. The crowd danced and jumped around while the lead singer danced around on the stage like a 1920's flapper having a seizure while attempting the Charleston...hard to imagine? He holds his arms down tight by his sides and flips only the hands up as he jerks the arms, straight back and forth and jumps. There was something charming about how he was dressed in simple little short shorts and a t-shirt. They are apparently from Sac, some of the crowd had a bit of a local hero vibe going on for them. There is one woman in the band and she can seriously rock it out. She too was dressed very casual, baseball hat, shorts and a tank top. Considering she looked older than most of the crowd and was also one of the few non-Caucasians, she looked a bit out of place on stage, until she shut any and all doubter the heck up with her fierce vocals and hot dance moves. She then went one step further by calling out the door guy who had apparently refused to let her in the club earlier because he did not believe she was in the band. She dedicated a song to him that basically put him in his place, just in case he did not already feel like an idiot. Success truly is  a sweet revenge! Aw yes it is!