“Musica shut down its bar and left the café open Thursday night for Christian rock band Everyday Sunday and the appearance of 4 local bands: Maiden Lane, Shine Bright Baby, August and Fast Awake. Each band respectfully brought their own entourage of fans with a turnout of 150 people, and while there were some technical difficulties, the local bands far outlived what Everyday Sunday had to offer.”
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Musica shut down its bar and left the café open Thursday night for Christian rock band Everyday Sunday and the appearance of 4 local bands: Maiden Lane, Shine Bright Baby, August and Fast Awake. Each band respectfully brought their own entourage of fans with a turnout of 150 people, and while there were some technical difficulties, the local bands far outlived what Everyday Sunday had to offer.
The acoustic project known as Maiden Lane was created by The Homecoming’s 16-year-old Matt McVaney along with Rejoyce’s 19-year-old Tony McVaney. The two brothers had much more of a stage presence than was expected as they began the first act on Thursday night. Maiden Lane was able to wrangle the crowd to the front of the stage and keep everyone interested for the entirety of their set. Songs like Maybe and Surround Me had the power to break your heart, and it’s easy to see that Maiden Lane might one day break their indie roots in the Akron area and move on to bigger and better things as they have so much promise at such a young age.
August, an alternative Christian rock band originating from Barberton, seemed to have one of the largest followings out of all of the bands present. Similar in nature to the sound of Nickelback and other mainstream rock bands, August seemed more intent about focusing on their fans and putting on a show rather than progressing instrumentally through their music. Front man Josh Ison spoke of their genuine devotion to their fans, and the crowd response was extremely positive to what they had to offer.
Fast Awake took the same genuine approach to their set when they stepped onto the stage as a band for the last time. In recent months, the band has reported on their MySpace that they were indefinitely breaking up due to the sudden absence of one of their members. Though their time as a band has been relatively short-lived, since 2006, the members of Fast Awake made statements of possibly picking up other projects in the near future, which leaves a lot of leeway for improvement and experimentation.
Everyday Sunday has a lot of room for improvement as well since they sadly did not live up to expectations as a headlining band. Performing dance rock with heavy bass lines seemed to be the largest problem of their performance, as the lead singer Trey Pearson sounded flat and under-appreciated. While it was obvious the four members of the band had really good chemistry, the lyrics and the passion of their music was completely lost.
The entertaining quality of their set existed in their pop-like beats and imitation screams but they were unable to maintain this throughout their poorly extended one hour set. Wake Up! Wake Up!, the single from their first album of the same name had much more grounding than Best Night of Our Lives, which is expected to be released from their upcoming second album on June 16, 2009.
Though Everyday Sunday closed out the concert event on a sour note, the highlight of the evening was Shine Bright Baby’s performance within the first hour.
Though off to a slow start after having some minor technical difficulties with the equipment, Shine Bright Baby set the bar for the other bands as they were much more instrumental than any other performance as the second band in the event. Performing brand new versions of Brace Yourself and Heartbreak!! from their first EP proved they were far more advanced since its release in late September of 2008. Since acquiring female drummer Krislyn Wooley and bass player Hudson Taylor, Shine Bright Baby has progressed into its own independent voice that rivals other alternative Christian bands.
The crowd was given a sneak peek of their upcoming EP, entitled The Heart and it’s Hope with songs like Deadbolt and We Were Made To, which combined the original sound of their first EP along with deeper, hard hitting lyrics. Also performed from their upcoming EP was the theatrical five minute 1000 Ideals of Man. With this powerful on-edge performance, along with surprising guest vocals by Zoltan Foxx from Canadian band Jay and the Lovebirds , Shine Bright Baby carried an independence that solidifies their standing within the music industry. The Heart and It’s Hope will be available May 22, 2009, and from their 30 minute performance Thursday night, their new EP will bring much satisfaction to both new and old fans this summer.

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