August 05, 2002
Atomic 7 at the Gem
Went down to the local watering hole The Gem last night to catch the band Atomic 7 play some tunes. Atomic 7 is the current band of Brian Connelly who was in Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet. If the guitar work in Atomic 7 is indicative of what kind of role he played in SMoaSP then it'd be fair to say that he was responsible for the garage/surf/spy instrumental licks. Atomic 7 treads similar territory.
It also features Fermentations (local brew your own joint) employee Clinton on standup bass. Though from where we were we couldn't really see him very well and thus don't have a great pic of him wielding said bass.
Good show, entertaining music. I think it is near impossible not to be put in a good mood listening to this music. If there is a difference between SMoaSP and Atomic 7 it might be that there is a little touch of punk aggression in the former while the latter comes across cleaner with more of a classic influence.
We'd seen them at this venue back in December and we weren't treated to their cover of "Mr. Sandman" this time through, though we did leave part way through their third set.
The drummer has neat percussion things that had me remarking to myself "so THAT is what makes that noise" when I saw him hitting them back in December. Didn't get a good view on the action this time but yeah, I still dug the percussion flourishes.