REVIEW: WARM SODA
As evidenced by Friday night's show at the Eclectic Society, Warm Soda can't help but craft hit after hit. Their simple, danceable smooth punk music was very well received by the Eclectic audience; most all of the blissed-out crowd couldn't help but move their feet to frontman Matthew Melton's power-pop gems. With Parents and O Presidente opening, the evening was sure to be a bizarre and undeniably dance-y rock 'n' roll explosion.
Wesleyan two-piece Parents opened up the show, delivering a chaotic set of garage riffs interspersed with the looped recording of a woman exclaiming, "play that music." The constant presence of the computerized voice was totally weird if not very funny, making their aggressive, simple punk music all the more baffling and mesmerizing.
O Presidente came next, their tropical melodies quickly infecting the jittery crowd. The Wesleyan group's jangly doo-wop was reminiscent of Blue Album era Weezer, yet clearly influenced by Shannon and the Clams, Sonny and the Sunsets, and the Bay Area pop resurgence that Warm Soda have grown out of. Though O Presidente's sunny pop is sure to warm you up on a chilly Connecticut evening, their surfy jams are more fitting of summer nights on the golden state coast.
Opening with their urgent, riffed-out single "Reaction," Oakland's Warm Soda came out next to play a blissful set of pure pop music. They powered through a half hour of consistently catchy, deceptively simple jams that would make even Alex Chilton jealous. After noting that they had started the band a mere four months ago, Matthew Melton and co. broke into the painfully short "Diamond Ring," a bass-driven number reminiscent of the similarly poppy punk minded Buzzcocks. The tense, hook-filled "Violent Blue" sounded like a Sugar song that Bob Mould simply forgot to write. Melton is a genius at crafting such songs that feel so familiar, melodies that you swear you've thought of before. The painfully short "Only in Your Mind," full of cathartic chord progressions that vibrate in your eighth grade heartstrings, could have been pulled straight from the Bare Wires back catalog. Closing with "Lola", a jangly kiss-off to a rock 'n' roller femme fatal (according to Melton, "no relation to the Kinks song. Totally different person"), Warm Soda came to the end of a catchy set of nothing-less-than hits.
Warm Soda will be releasing their debut album on Castle Face Records later this year. Get their recently released single "Reaction" from Southpaw Records here or check it out on YouTube.
