Melissa McIntyre
There’s no shortage of people in their 30’s, 40’s, or even 50’s who cling to dreams of rock stardom. Just spend a few hours at one of the dozen open mic nights that take place around town and you’ll find them in spades. But rarely do you find someone who just decided to pick up a guitar at 30 and write songs that has as much talent as Melissa McIntyre. Her Soundcloud page reveals a knack for writing engaging (no pun intended) guitar/bass/vocal songs. Her voice is particularly pretty when used at a lower range and slow tempo, such as in the Mazzy Star inspired “I Don’t Wanna Ask”.
There were upwards of 30 people – family, friends, and fans – on hand to see her performance in the Summit Music Hall lounge on Thursday night. McIntyre seemed nervous and at times it was evident in her performance. A little guitar mistake here, a little voice break there. She seemed much more comfortable when her guitar teacher (and frontman of The Epilogues) Chris Heckman joined her on stage for a duet of “Lost My Way”. For her final song, she broke out a brand-new one. Usually, this is not a very good idea and unfortunately it was not quite ready for prime time. I know if I was in her shoes, I would have preferred to decompress on one of the Summit’s leather sofa’s following a nerve-wracking set. But, this was not in the cards for Melissa. Her boyfriend Justin proposed to her on-stage at the end of her set. She said “yes”.
Melissa has talent. This was the first time I had seen her perform, so I don’t have any basis for comparison. For all I know, nerves have never been a problem for her. Maybe as she looked out at the sea of her family and friends, she got an inkling of what was to follow and she got rattled. I’ll find out next time, because I’d be happy to see her perform again those songs again. You can follow her journey too on Facebook.
Popcult
Speaking of talent, where in the hell did Popcult come from?!? Fresh out of high school, Justin Renaud and Tyler Venter somehow managed to hook up with Chain Gang of 1974 earlier in the year for a short tour including a stop at SXSW. Then, they went up into the mountains near Fairplay and pumped out an EP’s worth of Coldplay-inspired tracks that benefit greatly from the production, mixing, and engineering talents of Matt Wilcox (who also recently co-produced American Tomahawk’s CD). Thursday night’s show at the Larimer Lounge was only their fourth live performance as a band, which also features bassist Alex Halvorson and former Fear Before (The March of Flames) drummer Brandon Proff.
There were supposed to be four bands playing, with Popcult as the headliner. Given that the show was supposed to start at 9 PM, I figured Popcult wouldn’t hit the stage until at least 11:00 PM. Big mistake. They started at 10:00 PM and I was only able to catch two songs. I might have been treated to a third song, as the crowd really wanted an encore. But, Renaud charmingly admitted they didn’t know any more songs. Why the early set? Maybe it had to do with the fact that Renaud and Venter are only 19 and were playing a gig that they would be too young to actually attend. Maybe it had to do with a shakeup of the schedule – Young Cities had been expected to play, but that never materialized. In any event, Popcult appears to be capable of living up to the promise of their EP. It was one of the best “sounding” performances by a 4-piece pop/rock band I’d heard at Larimer Lounge – comparable to their recorded versions. The mix at Larimer can get overwhelmingly loud, but Popcult’s music allowed for a less aggressive mix. Yeah, they are going to continue to get dogged by Coldplay comparisons. But is it really so bad to be compared to your heroes who have been writing hit songs for over 10 years when you’ve only been doing it for a few months?
You can find Popcult on Facebook and download their EP for free at http://www.popcultband.com.
Everyday (in the Mile High) 