Live: The Vandelles

When: 3/26
Where: Cameo Gallery

Just a quicky here, since I've reviewed the Vandelles more times than anyone should. I just can't help myself.

The Vandelles set at Cameo featured their usual musical onslaught of wall-to-wall feedback and their usual irresistible surf and rockabilly-esque ditties. The band is ferocious.

Among the many remarkable attributes of the Vandelles is the fact that they keep getting better. You can tell how hard these guys work and you can see exactly what they've been working on between each show.

Now, in one review of the Vandelles at Cameo, I remarked that guitarist Christo Buffam was "the least immediately captivating" member of the group. I didn't mean that as any insult then - the man is response for every nuance in the band's sonic attack - but in this round, he proved he's got the intense stage presence to match his intense noise. Brandishing his guitar as a weapon, he spent the show silhouetted in corporal battle with the pealing waves of sound.

The rest of the band were no less engaging. Jason Schwartz has a classic frontman's charisma while to his left, bassist Lisha Nadkarni dominates her instrument and her audience with a solid stance and cool focus. And in the back, the ever impressive Honey Pagliorola threatens to split every drum in half with each deadly stroke.

This band is about to catch on big time and all I can say is, it's about damn time.

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