Posted on: September 26, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Goodlife (Acoustic) / Three-Fifths – May 2004

I was really vascillating about whether or not I should attend this show the two days immediately preceding, as I had the notion that my attendance would validify any thought that the band should split into two entities. Put on by the religious group Young Life, this show included yet another of the endless line of singer-songwriters that take the same bag of influences ranging from Dave Matthewsd to Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan and render the same exact style of soulless drek rock.However, the free food provided by the organization went far into making that waste of time partially tolerable, helping me bide my time until Three-Fifths took the stage. The set-up of the band is relatively the same as The Goodlife, with John assuming vocal duties and guitar, Jacob playing guitar, and Will playing drums and assuming the synth for the night.

To be brutally honest, the band had to take the first few songs to really get into the groove of things, with their Starting Line cover (Best of Me) having some minor chord issues which are more than made up for by the emotive force of eir’s vocals coming through clearly. This is even more impressive since Will’s drums have the tendency to dwarf all other instruments. Three-Fifths version of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” is solid except for Will’s synths are too loud for John’s singing at points. A cover of Oasis’ “Wonderwall” follows after that without much note, but it is during their instrumental song that the technical ability of the band really is allowed to shine. The instrumental track has the added benefit of showing off the innovative nature of the band, since they are able to work within a common theme for an extended length without it getting stale in the least.

Ending their set with a number of covers (with one original sneaking in towards the end), Three-Fifths start out this section of their set with Dashboard Confessional’s “Screaming Infidelities”, a track in which John’s vocals actually are at a level high enough to surpass Chris Carraba, and Jake’s guitar work innovates yet again, infusing the track with a much more jam-band feel. Eliciting responses from the crowd, Three-Fifths gracefully leaves the stage more mythic than man, able to contain nearly the same amount of energy that is exuded from The Goodlife. A nice side project, to say the least.

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