Get Him Eat Him at The Space - 6/23

I was able to attend my first show at The Space on Congress St. last night, and it was a great first show. The main band was a Providence-based, Indie rock band called Get Him Eat Him with supporter Gully, a Portland-based band that draws a lot of influence by prolific indie bands Guided By Voices and Pavement.

First off, I'd like to comment about my first experience at The Space. It is a very nice and small venue. This place is really designed for music and the arts, and it shows with the artistic design that is displayed from the ceilings to the stage to the walls to the floor. I was satisfied to see that most of the attendants, if not all, were there for the music instead of the alcohol at the bar. It happens way too often a lot of people go to concerts to get drunk and find someone to screw after the show, and it didn't seem to be the case here. My only criticism is that the attendance was poor. There was a lot of space to be filled throughout the entire venue. Something needs to be done about that in the future. I hope The Slip and Bobby Bare Jr. show gets a good attendance tomorrow night, because I won't be able to make it unfortunately.

I didn't feel the greatest vibes from Gully at first, but then I realized they weren't your everyday Portland band. Their style was a combination of lo-fi and indie grunge that comes right from the early 90's. Though I hadn't given Guided By Voices and Pavement before the show, I could totally feel and dig their style. I always need to hear the recorded versions of the song to get the clarity, so I listened to two of their songs on their Myspace, and I'm totally feeling their good vibes now. I definitely want to check them out again. They're playing a show at Geno's on July 7th, but it's probably 21+ (though that hasn't stopped me in the past!).

The band I really wanted to see was up next. Unlike The Station, you didn't have to wait for four of five opening bands to play in order to see the band you came for, and I really, really love that about The Space.

Get Him Eat Him put on a great show. They draw a lot of influences from Indie artists such as The New Pornographers, Ted Leo, and The Wrens to name a few. The mixing could've been better, because I did have a hard time hearing the vocals at some point, but overall, all of their songs were true to the recordings I heard on their newest album, Arms Down. The two songs I really looked forward to hearing were "2 X 2" and "Push and Pull", and they played great renditions of them. Though there was no trumpet player, they managed to keep the trumpet part in "2 X 2". I wasn't so sure how they did it. It might have been a recording or it could have been a really awesome voice on the synthesizer. On their encore, they played a song from their b-side that was very good and made me want to get more of their music.

After the show, I had a chance to ask frontman Matt LeMay about the meaning behind the band name, Get Him Eat Him. He told me it is based on a comic that Raf Spielman of the band wrote. The comic is actually a design for one of their shirts that they're selling. Here's the comic:

It was a fun, chill concert to attend. I will definitely be attending more shows at The Space later on in the summer. I'm kind of angry that I wasn't able to see Of Montreal there when they came last year because of my age, but I know that The Space is good at booking a collection of some very unique acts, so if you're looking for something different, go see a show at The Space on Congress St.