Aria Decline wants to come into your house and rock you. They want to wake you up, as you’re dreaming of Queen and throw some Weezer in your face. They want to grind the Beach Boys into your sleepy eyes and Death Cab for Cutie into your mouth. The result of all of this is you smiling. No matter how melancholy the songs’ subject matter might be, you are dancing and you have a grin creeping across that emo face of yours.
Perhaps the incessant intensity of vocalist and guitarist Nate Highfield is the cause, whose unique way of passionately attacking his guitar with loving delicate reckless abandon reverberates out into the crowd, eliciting stealthy air guitar from everyone in the first few rows. Or is it the Keith Moon-esuqe insanity of Aaron Burch behind his DW drums, pounding the beats away, standing on his drum throne, screaming the lyrics along with Highfield, egging the crowd to sing louder, to echo his voracious love for the music the band is playing.
Ok. I am getting ahead of myself.
In the year or so I’ve known about this band, I’ve been searching for a way to define their sound, after this show, I think I’ve nailed it down. Pinkerton era weezer mixed with the beach boys, but sounding like neither- their genre is simply: facerockinglygood-core. Their three part harmonies are better than any you’re likely to hear in modern music, and they take cues from the Beatles and Ben Folds in their poppy yet complexly beautiful songwriting structure.
The band draws inspiration from a wide range of influences, and it is evident in their show. Most bands that they would share a genre with wouldn’t know who Pink Floyd is, let alone open a show with the first track off of The Wall, “In the Flesh?”. The band powered straight into an unmistakable fan favorite, “The Obvious”, a song whose soaring guitar riffs and pleading vocals beg the audience to sing along.
The energy the band exudes flows through each member in its own way, but the group as a whole are more like rock and roll camp song leaders than straight ahead musicians. Even when they are not leading the crowd in the opening clap-a-long of “Oh Well”, band members, such as Casper Johnson on Saxophone and Mitch Jenkins on Trumpet and now on keyboard, are active, dancing all around the stage, grabbing the mics they use for backup vocals as violently as Bassist Jacob Parnell stomps about the rear of the stage. Though he may not be as easily noticed as the more prominent members of the band (since he never approaches a mic except to tell a inter-song tale), Parnellis an important member, laying down subtle bass lines to compliment the more exploratory guitar harmonies of Highfield and guitarist Jackson Parmelee. The understated Parmelee coincidentally has the most forceful yet beautiful back up ooo ooos and ahhhs I think I’ve ever heard.
Every member of the band put their all into their performance, and it really came across. The band blew away and won over new fans, who screamed out compliments during the band’s set, and the guys were swarmed with people to talk to about their music as soon as the lights went down.
Aria Decline is the kind of live band you have to work hard not to like. They had me by playing a Pink Floyd cover and a Stevie Wonder cover in the same set. It just doesn’t get any better than that. You wont hear any covers on the band’s new EP Moving though, freshly released and far too hidden away in a basement merch booth at this show.
To put it succinctly, a great fun rock and roll show, with a dash of just about everything else thrown into the mix as well. You can’t beat it with an aluminum bat, covered in honey, with nails stuck to it, on the hottest day of July in Atlanta. Trust me, I’ve tried.
I am waiting for the note that will silence all that came before.
