Bend Sinister returned to the Slice, July 23 with an organ powered roar for a frenetically dancing crowd oblivious to the deluge happening outside. They had a decent crowd when they were here in January in the middle of a blizzard and have since stepped up their game, still on a South Country Fair high. Most of the audience also remembered them from their Saturday night performance at the South Country Fair and still sported their volunteer T-Shirts.
Bend Sinister combined some of the best elements of ’70s rock and roll like Supertramp, ELO, David Bowie and, thanks to the fantastic organ playing, a lot of Deep Purple. And even Elton John as they covered his hit “ Benny and the Jets.”
I caught most of their short and sweet set which included much of their brand new record “Animals.”
Some of the highlights from that were “Teacher” and “Best of You.” They tackled a few older songs like “Things Will Get Better,” as frontmen/ organist Daniel Moxon chatted with the crowd about trying to remember the correct chords to it.
The audience loved them. One girl jumped on stage and planted a big kiss on each of the band members as other audience members wound their way through the dancers to bring shots to the stage.
Drummer Jason Dana was a blur as was bassist Matt Rhode, coaxing feedback out of his bass amp and doing Pete Townshend style windmills.
Joseph Blood stood in the shadows playing tasteful guitar solos that fit right in. A trumpet player Kristy joined them as if from nowhere to add some brass to a couple of songs.
The organ and Moxon's powerful voice marked a memorable performance and showed Bend Sinister are a band to watch out for in the future.
They ended their energetic set before midnight.