Spanish Gold and Northern Faces stopped in to Mercury lounge on 6-3-14 for a night of pure rock n’ roll.
Northern Faces started the party off with some straight forward rock with no frills and without a keyboard in sight to confuse things. The Upstate rockers from Albany is comprised of singer/guitarist Bryan Shortell, Marco Testa on vocals and guitar, Matt Ippolito on bass, and Mike Ryan on drums and are a tight nit unit. The forty five minute set was riddled with guitars and sweet harmonies and had the nearly packed house bouncing around for the duration.
Spanish Gold, a super-group of sorts, touring on their debut album “South of Nowhere” consists of My Morning Jacket drummer extraordinaire, Patrick Hallahan, lead singer/guitarist Dante Schwebel of Hacienda/City and Colour, and Adrian Quesada of Brownout. They were joined by a few gorgeous backup singers and a bassist that provided depth and harmonies.
Being a huge My Morning Jacket fan, I was most excited to catch the mighty Hallahan mere feet away on the drum kit and as usual he brought the thunder in large doses but what really caught my attention was the complexity of the complete band and how they effortlessly performed the material off their new album. The songs off of “South of Nowhere” when performed live were a real treat, mostly straight forward rock with just a hint of the Latin vibe suggested by the bands name. The jams were numerous and tight and after performing the entire album they brought out a funky version of Bel Biv Devoe’s hit “poison” for a rollicking finale and had the room dancing and generally freaking out.
Spanish Gold is on tour now, be sure to catch this red hot act in a city near you.
Photos and article by: Shayne Hanley
