Black Wine, the three piece who opened the Don Giovanni Showcase on Saturday night, have one great great song. It's called "Chateau Of Ghosts" and it is sung by one of Black Wine's three singers -bassist, Jason Nixon. The penultimate song of their set, and not really the highlight, it was New York power pop by a New Jersey band as good as any, but better that any?
Let's say, whiter than any.
The married couple, Jeff Schroeck on guitar and, Miranda Taylor, on drums, Yo La Tengo it up with one part quirk, two parts hard rock songs off their two albums. They come across like a modern day classic rock band who don't quite know which direction to take nice.
And that's fine. Black Wine play well together, they fit like pieces in a puzzle, playing an intense alt rock and playing it with intense singlemindedness. But i don't know their material well and I think it isn't something you can catch right away. One song, sung buy Miranda, goes "this is dedicated to the one I hate" , it is called "End Of days" and with its short stop jerkiness and anthemic sweep, itpays the clever reversal very well.
I kinda wish I had know Black Wine's material better.
The chick has a great voice.
Grade: B