Besides my love for Surfer Blood it's the new venue just outside downtown Orlando that's pretty much making the news here. If you ever drive by the intersection of Mills and Colonial you know what building this new venue is. You know it as the Cruises Only building. I never knew it had a "real" name. It's called The Cameo Theatre. I've not-so-secretly coveted this building for years now. I remember when The Trapper Keeper, an all-ages music venue my friends and I ran a few years ago, was shut down by the city at it's second location I wanted to move the venue to this building. The rent was way out of our budget but would have been the perfect place to have shows. It's also the building that Wills Pub was going to move into, they in fact had a lease on it only to find out the building was too close to an elementary school to serve beer and wine. I heard Surfer Blood was booked here so I was just as excited to check out the building as to see the band. (Here's a picture if you want to see the exterior).

The Cameo Theater was built in the 1940s and was originally a movie theater. It's been abandoned for years. An Actors Group had recently taken over late last year, hosting mostly art parties and plays. This was the first music event I had seen advertised (that I would be interested in). We entered and inside it looks like not much had been done to this long abandoned space. The walls of bricks and mortar were left exposed, the ceiling is high without tiles showing the iron guts of the building. It's a really big open room, with a small "bar" area just inside the entrance doors, separated by bed sheets leading into the main room. The stage was set in the middle against the wall with rows of folding chairs set back from the stage and reject Panera Bread cushioned benched seats along the outside walls. Clips lights seemed to be the only rooms only light source, serviced by ladders. Call this place the adult version of The Black Box Collective.

Anyway, I wanted to see Surfer Blood, an indie rock band from West Palm Beach I've taken a strong liking to. I first heard them on Myspace early last year with a song called "I'm Not Ready", a song that had me hooked from the start with its super catchy opening guitar line and striking vocals. Singer/guitarist JP has a similar sing/shout style as Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse with some nice falsettos mixed in.

In the past year they've been touring here and there in south Florida and a handful of shows in Orlando when their band name was TV Club. My band, Hot Hands, had played with them at Orlando Brewing and a second time at Copper Rocket with Kristin's band Garbo's Daughter. Both times they blew me away and I could not stop talking about them.

They started out as a four piece as TV Club, lost a guitar player and played out as a trio for a bit. This year the band resurfaced as a four piece with a new guitarist and bassist and a new band name, Surfer Blood. None of them actually surf so they say. They've recently finished recording and mastered a nine song full length that so far doesn't have a label to release it. I've heard an advance copy and let me be the first to tell you that's it's amazing and one of the best albums from a Florida band I've heard since 'Throwing Sparks' by Averkiou.

Not only are their recorded demos great, their live shows are just as good. I can't get enough of their sonic surfy sounds. This show they blew me away - again. Take that for whatever that means. They've got their sound down, you don't just play out of a Fender Super Six Reverb and not be tough. From the opening of "Floating Vibes" both guitars weave in and out of delays and reverbs with a Big Muff wall of sound. Drummer TJ is a drum smasher and is quite a sight to witness. He left the floor littered in broken drumsticks. They also played the reverb drenched "Swim (To Reach the End)", the surfy confessional "Catholic Pagans" and "Twin Peaks" that calls to mind Pest 5000. At the close of their set they tossed their guitars high into the air and hurled themselves onto the drum kit, knocking everything over. They're having fun.

Opening was Andy Matchett, who also plays in X.O.X.O. as their keyboardist. With his solo band he plays guitar and sings. For this show he put together a whole band made up partly with Abraham Couch from Band Marino on bass and his sister Megan on keyboard. Though I am not a fan of his music, it sounds like if The Juliana Theory covered Counting Crows, he pulled off a decent performance with only a weeks worth of practice. It's good for what it is.

I'm going to get a couple of complaints out of the way. There were some sound issues that the audience (and bands) had to suffer through. No one was even manning the sound board so when the PA stopped working it took almost a whole song to go by before anyone noticed to do something about it. Also, if I hear one more Soul Coughing song from their last album before breaking up I'm going to shoot myself. It was the only thing playing when bands weren't. What an awful album. Get an iPod or dj or something. They were serving beer and wine at four bucks a pop.... that's four bucks for a Miller High Life. Uhhhhhhh no thanks. How can they serve alcohol anyway if Wills couldn't? However, The Cameo does seem promising.

Pictures:

Andy Matchett and his band.

Surfer Blood.

Surfer Blood.

Surfer Blood make a mess. Clean up afterwards. Good boys.

Videos:

Surfer Blood play three songs. If you make it to the end you get the tail end of the band destroying everything on stage, in a final act of defiance TJ pours a beer over his drum kit.

Links:
Andy Matchett - Myspace.
Surfer Blood - Myspace.
Listen to "Catholic Pagans".
The Cameo Theatre.