Sep 08 : "Face In the Fog" - Current Profile Song

My blog earlier this week was about Philly / LA band "Tygerstrype" which I saw at Kung Fu Necktie back on August 29. I picked Tygerstrype after cross-checking band + venue pages and listening to various samplings.

However, as much as I liked Tygerstrype, that was a last minute idea. I had originally planned on going up to Brooklyn to see Robbers On High Street. But Irene cancelled out train service, so I looked for a good band that I could see without traveling through flood waters.

I originally saw Robbers On High Street one evening back in 2005 when I did the same exact thing as I did last week with Tygerstrype. I listened to samples of various bands playing at various venues, and the one I liked best was Robbers On High Street which was playing at North Star. At that show they played several of their songs from their then new cd "Tree City". Their lineup at the time was similar to that of many other bands.

I was very impressed with them and later saw them again at (at least) M Room, Johnny Brenda's, and Troc. My "band database" of shows that I've attended goes back only as far as 2007, so I might have also seen them another time in 2006 which wouldn't be recorded. I'm quite certain I saw them at least once at Mercury Lounge.

One of the things I like about the band is their experimentation with different lineups of vocals and instruments. When you walk into one of their shows, you never know for sure what instruments or vocalists they might be adding that one night. The most recent time I saw them was at M Room where they had expanded their regular lineup to six musicians. This was on June 10, 2010.

Unfortunately Robbers On High Street has not come to Philly since, and, while they do a fair number of shows, some of the ones in New York have been the night before I have an early morning commitment, so I can't get to them. So, this Summer when I needed an ROHS fix, I had seen this August 29 show as the best possibility.

So what did I miss? I don't know exactly what I missed, but their Facebook page promised an expanded horn section! For a year or two after Tree City, they had a period where their music was a little leaner, but then turned around to bring the music forward with more complex arrangements and orchestrations.

An example of some of the newer work with the more complex arrangements is "Face In the Fog".

To visit Robbers On High Street, here is the click ::: Robbers On High Street (CLICK HERE)