This Bright Apocalypse; March 19, 2008; High Noon Saloon

This Bright Apocalypse, or TBA (yeah, pretty awesome huh?), is better than any band with three drummers could be expected to be. Of course, if they all just sat around playing drums that would not be the case. Instead two-thirds of them play something other than their main instrument most of the time. Blueheels drummer Adam Cargin is a surprisingly good guitar player, though I am not sure when he has the time to practice given his main band’s busy schedule. Lead singer Luke Bassuener picked up the bass just for this band, and his simple playing blends well with the percussion oriented songs. Chris Sasman on the other hand gets to be the drummer who actually sits at the drum kit

Even though two of them have guitars in their hands, that doesn’t mean they aren’t contributing to the percussion, in fact that is exactly what makes this band so interesting. Adam has a small bass with a foot pedal that he uses, while Luke occasionally pounds a handheld African style drum, and all three take their turn at a larger hand drum. All that pounding wouldn’t work near as well as it does if all the members weren’t so percussively oriented. The time that Luke has spent in Africa influences their sound as well as their lyrics. His impressively strong voice has the familiarity of a big radio band (for some reason Live comes to mind, and that’s not an insult, that guy can belt it) while the rest of their sound is decidedly outside the mainstream.

They recently completed work on their second CD which they recorded with the ridiculously talented Jeremiah Nelson (Patchwork), but its release date is uncertain at this time. I have to hope that these guys will continue to find time for this band in addition to all their other projects, because this one is definitely worthwhile.