This week’s SēN Baltimore local music spotlight, on Saturday the 12th, was at the Creative Alliance in the Patterson building. Despite the air of a middle school gymnasium, fans, friends, and bandmates were able to grab a beer and take a seat at their choice of café tables or in the theater-style pews. Natty Bo in hand and SēN’s video recording crew intact, this venue promised to be a lip smacking sampler-platter of some of the area’s finest local mellow-rock acts.

At 7:30 pm, singer Teporah took the stage. Describing herself as a folk rock, bluesy mix, she is heavily driven by social issues and the civil rights movement. Citing Joni Mitchell as one of her biggest influences, her petite stature and lilting voice give the impression of an old-school Jewel with keyboard in hand instead of guitar. Although playing local shows is something that she enjoys, most of her gigs take her away from the city. With few venues that cater to an acoustic set, Teporah’s dream is to turn the tables and focus on helping to build a powerful folk and indie scene here within the Baltimore city limits.

Included in that dream were the next bad-boys (plus girl) to hit the stage, The JV Myka Project. Though Teporah and JV have been coyly eyeing each other from afar over the past few months, this show is the first that they have actually gotten to play together. We have seen JV Myka all over the city recently, and this is week two out of two that they have been featured in SëN’s summer spotlight. Described by their bassist as “Latin vamp rock,” the thing that really ties together their musical individuality is their violinist-slash-flautist, Mary Jane. Though there were claims of minor technical difficulties during the flute’s part, their set went well and was a powerful showcase of their talent and energy.

Gary B and The Notions were a surprising choice to take the place of hump-band—the third band in the set of five total. Maybe it was the schoolboy apparel, but Gary’s set was strangely resplendent of a 1950’s sock hop minus the poodle skirts. “The guys in ties” would have made Emeril Lagasse proud, taking the stage and kicking it up not one, but two whole notches. After following a strain of more mellow acts, this quadruplet’s self-described “rock/indie/pop” sounds much more like a modern alt-rock act with throwbacks to the early days when music was good. The boys have delightful stage chemistry, and audience members were infected with the body shakin’ tunes from the moment that they took the stage. Girls love the rock, and apparently rock loves the girls—“This song’s about a girl…” was a phrase that Mr. Gary Lee (aka. Gary B) repeated often between musical numbers.

The Notions were a hard act to follow, and Impossible Hair had the impossible task of trying to do so. Although in a different venue this Silver Spring-based band could probably bring down the house, after the progressively heavier rock beats that Gary had brought to the stage, these boys seemed to lack energy. Their MySpace page quotes them as “Happy Hardcore” in musical genre, but they sound more like a rock-pop compilation that would be heard on a mainstream XM station or in a Nordstrom’s dressing room. Impossible Hair definitely has talent, but at the Creative Alliance the most memorable part of their performance was the video projection of an aerial view of people playing ping-pong.

The Squååks brought back the rock with a set from 2007’s album Rock Control. Although belle-bassist Elena Fox had some serious technical difficulties within the first five minutes, they played on until everything was figured out, at which point they brought the pain in rare form of some plainly awesome jams. They relate to the crowd as if everyone were a close friend, which makes for a very relaxed and easygoing atmosphere. Drummer Charles Cole requested band-aids from the audience for his heavily bleeding thumb, halfway through the set. Once again displaying their penchant for the saying “the show must go on,” they played through the blood until a kindhearted soul donated some sort of wound dressing covered in various cartoon figures. Seeming to forget his tentative whimpering throughout the brief, gory portion of the set, Cole was heard backstage after the show remarking that he’d played through worse.

All in all, the show did not disappoint. For all of the unlucky souls who didn’t attend, video footage of all of the bands, as well as interviews, are posted on the SëN Baltimore website. Check everyone out on the video screen, and then utilize your MySpace finger to go out there and make some friends!

To contact Teporah: www.myspace.com/teporahmusic To contact The JV Myca Project: www.myspace.com/jvmykamusic To contact Gary B and The Notions: www. myspace.com/garybandthenotions To contact Impossible Hair: www.myspace.com/impossiblehair To contact The Squååks: www.myspace.com/squaaks

Tags: Creative Alliance, Gary B & The Notions, Impossible Hair, Jessica Snow, Squaaks, Teporah, The JV Myka Project