Concert Review: RoarShark, Moon Zombies at Monty’s Krown

Though Friday may have been one of the first snow-flurry-filled
nights of Rochester’s winter season, inside Monty’s Krown
the musical temperature was anything but low. RoarShark opened up the night with a set of surefire surf rock, filled with that
genre-defining wet, splashy reverb and tonal riffs that call to mind everything
great about the beach (waves, babes, and sunny days) without forcing you to actually
go there and deal with the sand and seaweed.

The group forgoes a singer (except for a few screams here and
there); this is a guitar world, and by God the guitars are going to rule it.
Normally when a band goes without a singer I find that it’s hard to latch on to
a specific sound, but RoarShark’s licks were meaty enough
to sink your teeth into. The group’s dual lead guitar/bass guitar solo lines easily
filled the spotlight.

Then it was the Moon Zombies’ turn to rise and take
the stage. This group is funk, funk, funky, but with a heavier and solidified rock
architecture that makes it a little louder and fiercer than you might expect
from a funk band.

The group shifted from one planetary genre to the next,
sampling some straight-up ska-skank tunes (Reel Big
Fish’s “Beer” was in there), to rhythmic and soulful systems, and even heavier rock explosions. Most of the flow was seamless, but there was
still a little disconnect from song-to-song with so much genre shifting — some
people may find the band’s grabbing of so many sounds divisive rather than inclusive.
The keyboard managed to tie things together a bit, but tended to get a little
lost in the more rock-laden pieces.

The band shied away a bit, especially vocally, on some of the
songs where it seemed a little unsure of itself. But boy, when the group was
on, it was firing all cylinders. It created a totally different vibe when it let
loose, like on the closer for the roughly two-hour-long set, “Zombie Dance.”
The world may not have ended on Friday night — too bad, Mayans! — but if there were any dead people in the room, I’m pretty
sure even they made it up on their feet for the last dance. And since the
undead never really die, Moon Zombie has time to continue to flesh out and trim
the fat from its set, making everything all the juicier for the living, the
dancing, and the dead.

This article appears in Dec 19-25, 2012.