This past Friday was yet another Making Time that went as many of them do. The lineup was stellar with The Drums and Surfer Blood bringing the much hyped music of their debut LPs to the upstairs of Voyeur. The downstairs, along with beats from RockTits DJs, housed pals of Surfer Blood, The Dewars, and local spazzes The Spooks. All of this great music caused the hipcats to arrive in troves and create an unsurprisingly sweaty, messy, drug-fueled Friday night.
It felt like I spent more time being ignored by the downstairs bartender than I did watching actual music, but such has come to be expected. It is not my fault the Sparks are free, buddy, so don’t take it out on me. If I hadn’t been spending all my time trying to simulate falatio with my dollar bills to get the fierce bartender’s attention, I may have missed the dreamy weirdo-pop madness of The Dewars. This West Palm Beach crew led by twins Anthony & Zachary may have been the lesser known act of the night, but they won over many new fans and may or may not have turned one stoic critic into a wet-pantied girl scout (wink). They have a huge collection of songs that display their vast influences, including tinges of Elephant Six bands like Beulah and Olivia Tremor Control. Upstairs The Drums were bouncing their way through their retro glazed pop songs to a very eager crowd. They have a super specific style and have it down to a T. Before I went downstairs they performed the undeniably catchy “Best Friend” which is a personal favorite of mine. After them, the local support, The Spooks, took over the downstairs with their surfy garage tunes. They mangled their instruments through opener “Sleepy Sleep” working the crowd, and themselves, into a frenzy before blasting through their ever-to-short set that included the A-side from their recent 7” “Sea Monster” and one of my personal favorites, “Feather Leather”. They are like a hair band that hates hair bands, but loves doing many of the things that hair bands love to do. As soon as the Spooks finished downstairs, I made my way upstairs where Surfer Blood were already causing a tidal wave of dancing on the main floor. The energy of ringleader JP Pitts and his youthful cohorts was inescapable, and soon I found myself getting swept to the front and helping support JP as he surfed his way into the crowd immediately after raging through breakout single “Swim”. They continue to create buzz with their “no such thing as too much fun” innocence. They also just signed to Warner Bros AND are about to start a tour with Interpol. So yeah, get used to these guys ‘cause they are not stoppin’ for no one. I may not have been in the best mood at the start, but all the great bands made the occasional bummer totally easy to forget. – Adam G.