Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: Culture

Lead singer Colin Orthmann of Fast Pace Slow Race, opened for the Dave Matthews Tribute band the night of Feb 7 in the Pacific Room.

The Dave Matthews Tribute Band performs for students on Feb 7 in the Pacific Room.

On Feb. 8 Western had the chance to host the next best thing to the one and only Dave Matthews Band. At least 60 people attended the event which started out with a local band, Fast Pace Slow Race.

The show got mixed reviews, with complaints mostly about the sound system when the instrumentals overpowered the vocals, making it near impossible to understand the lyrics. The evening was almost saved due to the outstanding talent of the instrumentalists.

The reoccuring theme throughout the night was, for both bands, great melodies and instrumentals but unrecognizable lyrics and quiet vocals.

Fast Pace Slow Race performed songs with bouncy rhythms and catchy riffs but the vocals were lost amidst the chaos of the sound system. The best song from their set was "Sewn Our Hearts Together", a snazzy love song played in honor of Valentine's Day. Reminiscent of the seventies' surfer songs, it had a fun melody backed by Beach Boys-like guitar chords and a heavy drum beat.

When the Dave Matthews Tribute Band took the stage, they seemed to have the same technical problems as Fast Pace Slow Race with the vocals being muffled by the instruments. Luckily one bit of a song was audible enough for the relaxed audience to join in, singing "stop, hey, what's that sound..."

While the vocals left something to be desired, both in loudness and a lack of similarity to the actual Matthew's voice, the members of the band were very talented and were able to show off their chops in mutiple solos. The most impressive person was the electric fiddler who played with such skill that the audience was stunned after each of his spectacular solos.

While the evening did provide some entertainment, the audience had mixed opinions concerning the performances.

Senior Tyler Abelein stated that the performance "could have had more people, but the band was good".

Jiwon Seol, another senior, commented that the event "needed a better opener".

A very excited Alexa Haller, junior, enjoyed herself and felt that the tribute band would have done the original proud. "They played pretty much the same set as their Central Park Concert in New York and the sounded a lot like them."

The overall quality of the bands is left for all the viewers to decide, but the one universal consensus of the evening is that spending extra time on the sound check would generally pay off.•

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