The Submarines

Echoplex - December 5, 2008

Live Review by Amber Henson

Let me start by saying that The Submarines are one of my favorite new bands.  After listening to their second album, Honeysuckle Weeks, in the spring, I knew that they would be an important part of my life.  Their uplifting lyrics during a down part of the year tied them irrevocably to me.
So of course I couldn’t wait until they came back from touring Europe with Aimee Mann.  The last time I’d seen them, which was in June, they were playing at The Echo, but, probably due in part to providing the background music for an iPhone commercial, they had been moved downstairs to the much larger Echoplex.

The concert was everything I wanted it to be.  Blake Hazard – lead singer, secondary guitarist and xylophonist – was super cute, although off a bit.  She realized after the first song that she didn’t have a set list, so she kept having to ask her husband/bandmate John Dragonetti, or checking the drummer J. Stare’s list.  She forget the lyrics a couple of times.  About halfway through the set, she asked the audience if we were hot, admitting that she was very hot, and was wearing a silk slip underneath her black dress.  “Sorry, that’s way too much information.  Ugh.”

The crowd may not have been hot, but they were also off.  Only a few people were moving at all.  Blake commented on it early on (John didn’t say much during the show), asking if we were okay since we didn’t seem too enthused.  Poor girl has been touring in Europe where people know how to enjoy themselves at a concert.

They played through everything on their second album except for “Maybe”, and just about everything from their first album.  They did a quick encore of three songs, before Blake told us “That’s really it, we don’t have anymore songs!”  Oh, but when they do, happy day!