On Friday, November 10th, Anathallo and Page France stopped at Chain Reaction for a show full of balloons, shredded shoes, and trumpets. Oakland instrumental band, Tiny Lights, and Hopefield, local rockers, opened for a solid night of aural fun.

Tiny Lights

Name the most bizarre instrument you can think of for a band to play. Tiny Lights plays it. Name the most commonplace instrument you can think of. Voice? Drums? Tiny Lights doesn’t. Somehow, Tiny Lights’ innovations transcend the laws of traditional indie music and make something completely original. They opened with “Bridges (Extended),” in which guitarist Ben Bracken quietly droned, because, according to Bracken, “We have three singers that don’t sing. Lyrics aren’t my forte.” Tiny Lights was born from a previous project of Bracken’s, in which violinist Jacob Danziger was included in the original lineup. While Tiny Lights is incredibly talented, I was most surprised by Danziger, who could convey anguish, apathy, and joy with the simple use of his strings. Clarinet player Aram Shelton explains the pleasure of making music this way, “We enjoy the intangible expression of music. It’s a form of communication.”

Chain Reaction was probably the wrong venue for these cultured music students, but there is no denying their talent. Tiny Lights plays classical music that not only your grandparents will like, but you will too. Imagine Elijah Wood lying his head down on a bed of flowers, and you can get the general idea Maybe someday these boys will give up their crazy rock n’ indie lifestyles and settle for playing the Philharmonic instead. To paraphrase Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff: teenagers, they just don’t understand.

Hopefield

Put yourself in a Lola Ray state of mind (minus the gender neutral lyrics), and in no time you’ll be feeling Hopefield. Andrew Capra, lead singer, claims that Chain Reaction is his favorite venue to play because they love the staff. He continues, “We’ve played there enough so it’s like we know them. They’re super nice every time, and we just have a good time.” And you can tell: Hopefield feels right at home here. Despite his slightly dressy, brown overcoat, Capra looks completely comfortable playing, being among the rare singers that sound the same in his recording as he does live. As he says “We work really hard on our live shows. Anyone can have fun at one of our shows.” Perhaps that’s a problem for Hopefield. Although their set was solid, there was little differentiation from their record to their live show. Still, if you like Hopefield, then you’d like their show.

They opened with “Did You Notice,” off their EP Pictographs, but the show didn’t really heat up until they played “You Owe Me a Dance.” Apparently, Orange County, which comprises the majority of Hopefield’s fanbase, is most familiar with their latest music. Capra explains, “We’re really not really looking for a quick way to blow up.” The members of the bands attend the University of California at Irvine, where Capra studies jazz. One thing is for sure: they’ve come a long way from their college majors. And, according to Capra, they’re willing to go even further: “If something happens tomorrow, I’d put college on pause and go, and everyone in the band kind of agrees about that.”

My favorite of the songs played was “Rose Tint My World;” it had the perfect blend of emotion, sadness, and electric organ to truly convey the expression of the lyrics. I love Hopefield for never playing a spiteful breakup number, despite their not having the greatest range of subjects presented. Though I’d like to see more variety in their set, I was still pretty happy with them as a whole.

Page France

Page France plays music as original as singer Michael Nau’s original Converse sneakers. They opened with “Junkyard,” which had been released online to rave reviews. While Nau’s voice didn’t quite sound as much as The Shins as it did on their recording (instead leaning toward a true country-folk), it was still enjoyable in a Bob Dylan-esque manner. At the end of their first song, Nau smiled, looking at the newly implanted projector broadcasting an image of the band, saying, “I like this because we can watch ourselves play.” The band had incredible stage presence, and even while singing “Antarctica,” which is Nau’s favorite song to play, a more mellow and solidly acoustic song, had the audience’s eyes riveted on them.

Their audience was comprised mainly of hipsters inclined to tap their feet, but not to dance, to mouth the words, but never sing along. Still, there was a languid sense of enjoyment about the room as a particularly excited girl in the audience squealed nonsensical phrases at the band between songs. Page France’s bassist, Jasen Reeder, affected the obligatory bassist wiggle from side to side, and appeared to be falling apart; with the rips on his jeans, and holes in his shoes, only he would have experienced the hardship conveyed by Nau; when you buy Page France’s CD’s, request that the money goes to buy Reeder a new pair of Adidas. Page France closed with “Where’s my happy ending? I want my happy ending!” One thing is for sure: the audience sure got theirs.

Anathallo

I cannot say enough good things about Anathallo. The six year-old band put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Keyboardist Andrew Dost explains, “We don’t limit ourselves to what a standard rock show is. We dance.” Dance they do, as well as make instruments out of clapping, stomping, chanting and the flugelhorn, “which is basically a trumpet.” Several times, the band encouraged the audience to sing along, creating their own personal choir. Dost describes their music as “Indie rock with some horns, and maybe some more orchestral elements, mixed with a marching band.” I’d have to agree with the marching band; it seemed as if the entire band played at least one of the three sets of drums at least at once during the night. The band itself gave off a sense of community, with everyone working together in such a tiny space. The audience pressed in as far forward as they could manage just to be closer to the band. The diversely-influenced band inspired the best response when playing “A Great Wind, More Ash,” which is Dost’s favorite song to play (and mine to hear) because “there’s a lot of drums and a lot of movement.”

Beyond their musical ability, I respect Anathallo greatly for being so in tune with their fans: lead singer Matt Joynt knew many members of the audience by their names, and asked them personal questions that really impressed me. Joynt is a natural frontman, with a control of the audience that was amazing for such a small band. Furthermore, he was funny. Commenting on how well some people knew the words to his songs, Joynt said, “I feel like we’re at home. We practice in my parents’ basement and I know that’s not cool.” To give you a feel for their antics, in the middle of the set, they passed out balloons. The audience blew them up and on cue, they released them in unison, sending dozens of multicolored globes around the room.

Somewhere near the end of the show, a well-wisher near the back of the room screamed “I love you!” between songs, causing the entire band to look up and smile. Even though it wasn’t me…it could have been.

by Caitlin McGuire

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