Jaggerbush isn’t as rugged as you’d think

It’s amazing the judges of the 2005 Graffiti Rock Challenge still have faces — this year’s… It’s amazing the judges of the 2005 Graffiti Rock Challenge still have faces — this year’s competition has been full of face-melting guitar solos. Saturday night was no different.

The first group to carry out the now-cliched weekly tradition of guitar solos was the Monophonics, a five-piece rock group. Jim Holland, the band’s lead six-stringer, was a talented player yet took too much liberty in the way of solos.

Vocalist Ron Petitto’s voice was a bit flat during the Monophonic’s set — a quality that was blatantly evident when the group “slowed things down a bit.” The band played with a huge amount of energy, and Petitto had no reservations about dancing awkwardly around the stage during instrumentals.

The small crowd in attendance to see the Monophonics seemed to like the group — they applauded loudly at the end of every song. But applause won’t win rock challenges — the crowd needs to show its support by dancing or nearing the stage. The gap between the audience and the band was so large that a football game could’ve been played there — not a good sign.

The New Fiction, a four-piece female-fronted group played next, to a much larger audience. Appearing nervous at first, the group heated up as their set progressed.

The guitarist and drummer worked well together, and although they didn’t do anything spectacular, their combined playing matched perfectly with the lead singer’s beautiful voice — one similar to Lisa Loeb’s or Shawn Colvin’s.

Some of the group’s songs could’ve been shorter, as they dragged a bit. With some tweaking, these songs would be much tighter and, dare I say, radio-friendly?

As a whole, the New Fiction is a great band to listen to. Their music is chill and could be the soundtrack to study and make-out sessions alike.

Despite its coarse name, Jaggerbush was hardly the roughest band of the evening. In fact, this group was the tightest act of the night.

Lead singer Lori Vender blew the crowd away with her powerful pipes. At times, her voice was reminiscent of a young Gwen Stefani. Regardless, all who witnessed Vender’s singing were in awe.

Dancing around the stage with a smile on her face, Vender interacted with all of her band members as they played upbeat songs. The quartet was visibly happy to be onstage and possessed a good stage presence.

The band played their best song when they slowed their set down for the only time all evening and played “I’m Just Fine.” On this track, Vender wails, “I ain’t got time to be blue / Time just seems to fly / I’m just fine / How ’bout you?”

The group’s songs all sounded similar, but with time, that will change. Jaggerbush is one local group that, hopefully, is here to stay. There’s no telling what this group will accomplish in the future.

Closing out the night was the eclectic J.G. Boccella and Modo Mio, a five-piece group that was, well, different. Although different is not a bad thing, it might have hindered the group’s chances of winning.

Boccella’s sound was that of a funk/reggae/jazz mix — something that seemed a bit out of place in a rock challenge. They did, however, get the crowd moving and dancing, when vocalist/keyboardist Boccella wasn’t too busy playing slow solos.

It’s hard to look past the group’s musical ability, especially that of saxophonist Tim Clark. His playing was phenomenal but wasn’t featured in many of the group’s songs — a huge mistake. Boccella was a talented pianist, and the guitarist was great despite his, you guessed it, guitar solos.

The group did make some mistakes, but it was hardly their fault. Boccella seemed to be too much in control and was too busy following modo mio (Italian for “my own path”). For the group to go places, Boccella needs to stick to upbeat songs and allow his talented troupe of musicians to play.

After four long weeks of battling, four bands out of the original 16 semi-finalists walked away unscathed. Jaggerbush joins the Inconsiderate Few, Idiosympathy (formerly the Quick) and the Neon Swing X-perience in the March 5 finals.