Friday seemed like a pretty good line-up at the Graceland so we went. For those of you who haven't seen Neo before, they are a four piece and the two guitarists (one looks like he is from Belle and Sebastian and the other looks a little like a chaotic Adam Goldberg) swap out singing on songs which I think works particularly well. The stage room was about 75% full and Neo put on a great set which included 'Blackboard', 'Solitude', 'I'll Stay', 'Not a day…', 'Child', 'Anesthetized', 'Sebastian's theme' and 'Subterfuge'. Only 'Subterfuge' was from their first album, Space Country. I really enjoyed the new stuff and 'I'll Stay', 'Blackboard', and 'Solitude' all stood out to me. I think this next album is going to be super-big for them.

Aveo came on next and banged out, yet another, intense set that included 'Bridge to the Northern Lights' and 'Escape Artist Melody'. These guys are one of the most consistently good shows in town. William Wilson, the singer/guitarist, is an interesting character. He used to have the big new wave haircut down and then he cut it sometime before the Mural Amphitheater show.

So, I was waiting to see what he came out with at Graceland (Dana describes him as a 'honey'). The cool thing was that he had on this huge, grey pointed hat and a hip red windbreaker/raincoat. His outfit reminded me of a gnome (in a good way), and I began to wonder if he was one of the instigators of that whole Gnome Liberation Army thing. Well, it was a great show and if you haven't checked out Aveo yet — you really need to make an effort.

Creeper Lagoon, the headliner from the bay area, was pretty disappointing. I hate to say it, but they were just a boring college rock sound a-like band. All of their lyrics were straightforward & unexciting and I am always a believer in the use of a little metaphor in poetry and music (but what the hell do I know anyway). On top of the general mundane-ness of the music, the singer made a little political speech about some political cause… but it sounded like a naive little 17-year old (he's older than that) telling us about how Bush is bad and we should protect the environment-rah-rah (yeah, yeah, tell us something we don't know already).