Review: Redwalls, Abracadabras

Above: The Redwalls aren't a boy-band but the ladies sure like them. Photos by Bill Brownlee/Special to the Star

"Tra la la" and "hey hey hey."

No band today may be better at refurbishing rock's refuse than the Redwalls. The Chicago-area quartet's hour-long set awed an enthusiastic audience Friday night at the Record Bar.

A healthy percentage of the approximately 150 fans at the all-ages show were adoring women who lined the lip of the low-slung stage. It's easy to see the appeal. The Redwalls resemble a boy-band gone bad.

Like their music, the members of the Chicago-area group are both scruffy and cute. Although they're unabashedly in thrall of the original British Invasion acts, the band's vibrant sound isn't muffled in the slightest by mustiness.

Its most remarkable trick is sounding as raw as the Yardbirds and as bouncy as a beer jingle. Songs like "Game of Love" are faultless distillations of the last 50 years of Top 40 radio.

"They say it's all been done before," they wailed in the modish "Modern Diet." That may be true, but few have done it more convincingly than the Redwalls.

At their best, Kansas City's five-piece the Abracadabras (above) are a deliriously catchy pop band. Vocalist John Nixon's Union Jack belt buckle and vintage Rod Stewart haircut betray the band's ambitions. They play swaggering rock in the vein of the Faces; Colin Rausch's melodic McCartney-flavored bass adds a Beatles tinge to the mix.

Their opening set lasted about 45 minutes, but only 30 minutes of that comprised strong material. They relied on too many garage-blues stomps that are surely more fun to perform than to hear. That said, their cover of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" couldn't have been better. If they can come up with more songs as delightful as "Petty Politics" and "Be Still Be Cool" the Abracadabras might surpass the Redwall's trajectory.

|Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

Comments

[Wadkc]

The Redwalls are fantastic! I saw them a 2 or 3 years ago at Grand Emporium to a crowd of about 50...maybe. Their albums, 2 that I know of, are also well done. I don't know why they've never blown up. Of course not many good power pop bands do. Marvelous 3, American HiFi, Eve 6 just to name a few on the trash heap. The Redwalls remind me alot of Cheap Trick in their early stages.

[RaiderHawk]

Like Steve Miller said: "Abracadabra; I wanna reach out and grab ya'."

[fan of good music]

i love the redwalls and i think succeed very well at what they are trying to accomplish. i am utterly embarassed that they had to share the stage with the abracadabras - who don't know what they are trying to do but are obviously trying way too hard at all of it. john nixon needs to spend more time rehearsing his singing and less time posing in the mirror. my guess is they have an "agent" who tries to justify his 20% by picking out eye shadow and playing mix and match with all the cliche clothes and haircuts from his ebayed, dog earred copy of Rolling Stone - Best Images from the 70's.

[Harley Sears]

For the record, I only take 15% and get all my images from Classic Rock magazine... Rolling Stone is so overrated.

[Rockville]

Seems like it was a great evening..
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