So, I managed to crawl out from under my rock long enough this weekend to make it out to the late Sunday show at the new and improved Box Awesome—formerly known as The Chatter Box. So, who was playing? Well, Shinyville of course. Shinyville opened for two other great bans Time of Orchids and Upsilon Acrux.

Before I jump into the music I’d like to give kudos to the folks at the Box. They did a bang-up job of sprucing the place up. The stage is no longer crammed in the front window, it’s now smack in the middle of the venue, where the old bar was. The stage has gotten quite a bit bigger so now a four piece band doesn’t have to sit on each others lap to perform. There’s a lot more room on the floor in front of the stage too, which must be nice for bigger shows. The best part of all is the new and improve sound “booth” which is now a crows nest instead of a table behind the guy taking the cover from people coming in. With a wider space to project the sound I didn’t get the feeling that my ears were bleeding either. After the show I kept hearing the band members gushing over what and awesome venue it is. So big thumbs up to Box Awesome.

First up was Shinyville with a new lineup. At the core is still Scott on vocals and Jaime on guitar, but with a new drummer Jeff, and a new keyboardist Aaron. Golemite the iPod is still backing them up with videos and all the other subversive noise you can’t fit into a normal band. After a brief introduction by Shinyville’s personal evangelist, Butch Fever, the magic began. So far I’ve got to say that the new lineup sounded great. With only minor technical hiccups—most notably a little squawk caused by Scott’s Hulk hand sound effects—the set sounded superb. Of course that’s one of the best things about Shinyville, they always change it up. Live Shinyville is as different from the last Shinyville gig as it is to album Shinyville . Their onstage discord was spot on Sunday. I always get a kick out of Jaime playing his synth-tar mod with the tiny penlight. I think I’ve told everyone I know how awesome it is at least once. Aside from this there was plenty of Jesse Krakow love going on what with a cover of My Butthole Is Pretty Fucking Dumb from Jesse’s latest solo album and Jesse’s favorite Shinyville song A Gringo Like Me played especially for him. They finished up their set with Let’s Get Gone a tribute Jim Jones and his Kool-Aid cult, this track featured an all new video for the projection screen that you can check out at the end of the post.

Next up was Time of Orchids, those merry noise makers from NYC. In all seriousness though, their set was great too. Time of Orchids played tracks entirely from their new album Namesake Caution—which you should buy because it’s great. Seeing Time of Orchids live is quite a treat, these guys have so much enthusiasm especially considering how somber their music can be in places. There were times during the set that Eric’s picking hand became this blurring specter as it flew across the strings, and Jesse looked like a kid in a candy store plucking away at his bass. Their music is an keen blend of gently melody and rolling chaos. It seemed at sometimes they were all furiously playing their own track until the moment where it all came together in a sweeping crescendo.

Los Angeles based Upsilon Acrux closed the show. I had no idea what to expect from Acrux having never heard them before. I was a little apprehensive when I realized that there wasn’t a vocalist, that this was a 6 piece instrumental group. Yes, forgive my ignorance, but when I see instrumental groups I think jam band, when I think jam band I think hippie, when I think hippie I think… We’ll just let that one die where it is. Anyway, Upsilon Acrux is not a hippie jam band, they are a bunch of guys playing very complex music that I really can’t do justice. Like Time of Orchids, Upsilon Acrux specializes in all of them playing a huge mishmash that finally pulls itself together for these very ornate and energetic songs. Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by what they were doing.

Well, that was pretty much it for the whole Sunday evening rock-show. A good time was had by all. If you are intrigued enough to check out these guy’s myspace [ick] pages then here are the links… just follow the bunny trail.

Shinyville
Time of Orchids
Upsilon Acrux

p.s. If you stop by Box Awesome anytime soon beware not to order a rum & coke, they only carry Pepsi, and it’s really not the same. Also, be warned not to pester the bartender on how on earth they make a rum & coke without the Coca Cola.