If you are going to call yourself a Garage Rock band, there is a bit of a protocol, a normative standard if you will; dirty kids playing dirty riffs out of dirty equipment, keeping pretension at an all-time low, and letting homage and classic styles ride shotgun. But beyond these basic premises, one thing is for sure: you better rock the shit out of every live show you play. If you can’t do that, then you may never leave the garage.
Enter Dark Horse and the Carousels, a Philadelphia quartet loaded down with clever songwriting and simplistic but on-the-nose musicianship reminiscent of early Rolling Stones. Their sound is grimy but full of straight-ahead rock energy coupled with the insane, palpable passion of frontman Joe Kusy. They are not out to re-invent the wheel. They just wanna get you dancing to the pounding, never-fail rhythm. How can you go wrong?
Some would say you can go wrong by thoroughly upstaging your more-famous headliner. According to The Walrus, a music blog, Dark Horse and the Carousels embarrassed headliners Peter, Bjorn and John at a September MySpace secret show by working the crowd into a diabolical frenzy. They almost repeated this feat at the Khyber, this time supporting fellow Garage journeymen out of Atlanta, The Black Lips.
It is this type of balls-out fury Dark Horse is going to need when they go up against
(Current Standing ~ 4 out of 5)
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December 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am
i have to agree that they are really good. i saw them open for shonen knife at the northstar and after them there were two signed bands, Verona Grove and the Juliette Dagger and dark horse kicked both their asses. i hope they get somewhere because they deserve it.