Eclectic mix of bands at Gallery5

An eclectic mix of bands took over Gallery5 last Friday, with music ranging from blues rock, to heartland, to dance. The art gallery is Virginia’s oldest surviving fire station and Richmond’s oldest police station and jailhouse: a perfectly eclectic venue for an motley mix of bands.

The first band of the evening was The Vermilions, a band entirely made up of former VCU students. Singer and guitarist Jeremy Flax looked just like Buddy Holly, but he sounded more like Jack White after a cappuccino enema. This band’s modus operandi was fast, loud and excellent blues rock.

Flax whirled around like a dervish and stomped his cowboy boots so hard it was a marvel his bow-tie stayed on. Drummer Dan Hanyok powerfully pounded the skins under his red beard and schoolboy cap, and Evan Hume plucked away at his bass with a pick. The Vermilions included a great cover of The Undertones ’70s punk gem “Teenage Kicks.”

Some in the crowd weren’t expecting much when non-Richmond band How I Became the Bomb took the stage. The Nashville band was dressed in outdated western shirts, outdated pants and cowboy boots. They had ridiculous moustaches and sideburns, and looked like characters who didn’t make the final cut of Napoleon Dynamite.

Singer Jon Burr appeared to be a circa-1970s Joe Cocker, complete with a bird’s nest of hair, peppermint-striped pants, a giant belt buckle with a beer gut hanging overtop, an outdated collared shirt, horrendous jewelry, they even a keytar.

The band was fantastic. It played catchy dance-pop with good beats, thick bass grooves and ’80s style synthesizer. Burr sounded as if you took Rush’s Geddy Lee and transplanted him in the indie scene of Athens.

Burr danced poorly, and had a penchant for pointing to members of the audience while he shook his derriere. Whether the band is in on the joke is up for debate, but the fact they make good music is not.

A crowd showed up just for David Shultz and The Skyline, and seemed to know the words to every song. The band played the kind of boring heartland rock that John Mellencamp and others have played to death over and over again. To say the band isn’t good would be unfair, but it is musically uninventive, and seem to fulfill every geographic locale’s desire to have its own private Bruce Springsteen.

I’d take Brad Doggett solo or his group Earthtone any day over Shultz’s group. Doggett is the musical antithesis of Shultz and The Skyline. Where The Skyline plays color-in-the-lines folk-rock, Doggett and his group jump all over the place, with influences ranging from John Mayer to Lil’ Wayne to Justin Timberlake. The Skyline could take some cues from Doggett.

In summation, David Shultz and The Skyline would work better as a soundtrack to a “Grey’s Anatomy” episode than it did sandwiched between such a cavalcade of excellent bands.

The show concluded with Prabir and the Substitutes. A mix of danceable rock, crooning, vocal harmonies and crunchy guitars, the band’s songs were so catchy it would make even Helen Keller get up and bust a move.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TODD RAVIOTTA

The front of the crowd was a gaggle of gorgeous girls, who knew the words to every song. PATS thrashed around so much at times its members actually ran into each other. At the end of the set the five-piece band went nuts, climbing atop amplifiers and bouncing guitars off the ground.

The band was explosive live, and quite possibly, one of the best live acts in Richmond.

This reviewer’s prognosis is clear: You will like this band. If you see it at its next performance, it will become one of your new favorite acts.