{"id":3464,"date":"2019-01-08T16:57:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T21:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2019-12-17T20:16:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T01:16:14","slug":"review-shinner-strange-weekend-1-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2019\/01\/08\/review-shinner-strange-weekend-1-3\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: Shinner, Strange Weekend 1\/3"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reed Romanko<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NJ-based bands Shinner and Strange Weekend are a welcome reminder about the gems you can find in your local scene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ruffled red carpeting, stickers and graffiti from wall to wall, Christmas lights draped over errant pipes, and \u201cDiner Witches\u201d spray painted onto a banner behind the stage decorated the literally underground venue, The Meatlocker. It was brimming with college-aged kids chatting with one another like old pals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shinner, comprised of guitarist Kevin Barthold and drummer Noah Chamberlain, took the stage and began setting up. Chamberlain affixed a tambourine to his drum set while Barthold fiddled with his guitar and amp. Suddenly, chords from Barthold\u2019s guitar sprang out into the audience followed by Chamberlain\u2019s steady drum strokes. The opener started off with a personal favorite, \u201cPenhead,\u201d and quickly gained the crowd\u2019s attention. Before talking amongst themselves, now the audience was rapt with the energy and vitality of Shinner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shinner came out strong, and now had the audience\u2019s undivided attention. Barthold had a smile glued to his face as he progressed in his strumming. Though not notably complex, there is a beauty in the simplicity that he played. He rocked with every strum of the guitar and was relishing every moment of it. Likewise, Chamberlain seemed to be having the time of his life hitting those drums. It\u2019s not easy to have a full sound as a two-person band, but Chamberlain played a massive role in making Shinner sound complete. They closed with \u201cGlam,\u201d to which the audience replied with well-deserved applause.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Shinner\u2019s fun-filled set, the band quickly deconstructed their set-up and left Strange Weekend to get ready for their performance. Much to my surprise, they joined the audience immediately after! I flagged Barthold and Chamberlain down and asked them a little about their set. Somehow, they sounded like they enjoyed their performance even more than the audience! Our conversation was cut short, however, as Strange Weekend had finished their preparation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The intro to \u201cDeath on the Stairs\u201d was met with cheers from the audience. Guitarist Simon Ogilvie\u2019s riffs are beyond catchy, easily getting stuck in one\u2019s head. A mosh-pit formed behind me, bashing to drummer Aidan O\u2019Connor\u2019s bashing of the drums. A brief cheer follows the song\u2019s end before they jumped into the next song, \u201cJoey Vapes.\u201d They retained that high energy and enthusiasm throughout the song.<\/span><\/p>\n

Katrina Weissman, former audience member and soon to be singer, joined Strange Weekend on stage for their next song, \u201c3-2-1.\u201d She brought a mellowness to the stage, but that did not stop the trio from rocking along. Following that chilled song, Strange Weekend pumped it up again with \u201cThe Largest Oil Rig on Earth,\u201d with some standout moments from bassist Oliver Turiano. In the middle of the song, Rapper Kedar Ramanathan joined the band on stage and rapped a verse, further hyping up the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

With two audience members already joining the band on stage, it only seemed natural for the entire audience to join in, and that\u2019s exactly what happened with their next song, \u201cBack Out Again (2AM).\u201d When the chorus came around, Ogilvie lead most of the audience in chanting \u201c2AM!\u201d while Turiano lead a smaller back up section singing the same thing. When it came to the final song of the set, \u201cDigging Up History,\u201d the audience went wild. There was crowd surfing, Barthold returned to the stage and sang with Ogilvie, and once they finished, audience members stormed the stage, one toppling O\u2019Connor\u2019s drum set.<\/span><\/p>\n

One would think that would be the end, but no \u2014 The audience demanded an encore, and even waited for O\u2019Connor to get his drums set-up again. Once they were ready to roll, Strange Weekend started with \u201cSome Call Us Strange Weekend,\u201d the first song off their latest album <\/span>Diner Witches<\/span><\/i>. With the glow of a successful set behind them, they truly rocked the house, with added praise to O\u2019Connor for fueling such a stellar encore. The band finally closed with \u201cDaydream,\u201d a song the audience had been asking for all night. In that last song, O\u2019Connor, Ogilvie, and Turiano showed what Strange Weekend is: a band of buddies playing some fantastic songs for their friends.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Romanko   NJ-based bands Shinner and Strange Weekend are a welcome reminder about the gems you can find in your local scene. \u00a0 Ruffled red carpeting, stickers and graffiti from wall to wall, Christmas lights draped over errant pipes, and \u201cDiner Witches\u201d spray painted onto a banner behind the stage decorated the literally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3465,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}