The irony of Colourmusic — other than they aren’t British, as the spelling of “colour” would imply (they’re from Stillwater, Oklahoma) — is their use of white — all-white clothes, white guitars, white amps, white everything. No colour at all! Except the music, which was somewhat colorful. I had a hard time getting a handle on what they were trying to do. There was a lot of Flaming Lips going on, as well as typical indie rock. Fact is, the mix was so bad that all I could hear was the bass and the lead guy’s distortion pedals.

Bad sound also hampered British Sea Power’s set. Here was a six-piece that included a trumpet and violin player, neither of which could be heard past the bass in the muddy mix. Other than terrible sound, their set was pretty much as expected — a sort of homage to ’80s UK rock. Not bad, but not terribly inspiring and after awhile, somewhat boring, with every song played at the same pace, with the same dynamics, and the same fuzzy bass. Good-sized crowd (150?).
Hopefully, just as large of a crowd will be on hand for tonight’s show at The Waiting Room: For Against with Spring Gun and Richard Schultz and the Miracle Men. This show is being promoted by their label — Minneapolis’ Words on Music — as For Against’s CD-release show for Shade Side Sunny Side, their seventh full-length and first studio album since 2002. The album will officially be released on April 8.

I profiled the band last year before they headed out on a tour of Spain (read the story here). In the coming weeks, the band, which includes new drummer Nick Buller (of Spring Gun) will be headed to Italy for a tour that takes them to Rome, Salerno and Savona, with a Northern European tour planned for later in this year. Here’s your chance to see them on their home court (well, close to home anyway, as they’re actually from Lincoln). $8, 9 p.m.

A few weeks ago when I interviewed Jim Johnson for the Waiting Room anniversary story, he tipped me to another show that’s going on tonight: José González at Sokol Underground. It’s another in a series of shows by Hunt Industry, a Lawrence-based promotion company that seems to have taken Sokol Underground under its wing. Anyway, González is an Argentinean singer-songwriter with a unique style who has released music on a handful of labels including Parasol and Mute. He’s played on most of the late-night chat shows, including Conan and Kimmel. Opening the 7 p.m. show is Mia Doi. Tickets are $15. Would it be possible to hit this show, then For Against? Maybe…

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