Pardon the cliche, but it’s fitting: Koa blew the roof off Exit In Friday night.
In case you thought pop music achieved total music monopoly, these Belmont music buffs have something to say. Trading off sax, nord, and guitar solos throughout upbeat barn-burners, hell even the sound booth was head-bobbing.
Jam band would be accurate, think O.A.R and Dave Matthews. But then forget I said that. Koa is no wannabe, and moreover dodges the genre’s biggest pitfall: bad songwriting. No amount of noodling creates strong lyric and arrangement. Koa puts a checkmark by it, then has you sing along.
These seven guys need to graduate, drop out, ask pops for money, whatever. It’s one thing for skilled musicians to collaborate. It’s another to make it work. And yet another to make it a live success. The first two are clear. The 300 in attendance Friday know the third is, too.
–Ben Neumann; Event hosted by Cause A Scene at the Exit In 4/10/15.