Joe's Report, Serial Heroes

By William Brents

It's a real treat when one can show up at a club (in this case Tewligans) and catch not one but two up-and-coming local bands churning out original guitar rock.

Joe's Report and Serial Heroes were the culprits as they shared the October 14 late-night/ early-morning bill with a sparse but receptive crowd. Joe's Report took the stage first, led by none other than a guy named Joe. For the record, that's vocalist/guitarist Joe Scheirich.

Musically, the band, which also includes power drummer Luka and speedy bassist Johnny Spank, is pure pop-rock. They played several new songs from their just-released seven-song CD entitled Grow Loose. "Cancer" and "Sober" proved to be intense, uplifting and well-written songs. During an older number, "Falling Down Eternally," one could truly appreciate Scheirich's soothing and mature vocal capacity.

Their set was short and sweet, ending with a near-perfect cover of the Smashing Pumpkins song "Disappointed."

Serial Heroes, a band that has been together only a few months, followed with a respectable set of original melodic rock. Former R.U.O.K? guitarist Ron Brunton spearheads the trio's sound by displaying catchy amped-up riffs which accelerates the primal foundation being laid down by imposing bassist Timothy Hargesheimer and drummer Brian Brunton. "But I Won't" was a perfect example of this, plus it proved to be the band's anthem of sorts.

Most of the tough up-tempo songs, "Overdose" and "Poison Girls" just to name a couple, worked beautifully, building fiery momentum that occasionally got doused by a few lengthy apathetic slow-tempo numbers

I'm not a big fan of spoken word spiels but when Ron Brunton began to illuminate about the human condition, the band's name made perfect sense.

Serial Heroes ended its set with a Sonic Youth-like feedback fest filled with walls of gorgeous distortion and ethereal pop destruction.

As a sidenote, bassist Hargesheimer told me that the band was heading into the studio shortly with rain chorus bassist Mike Baker for some demo work.