Last night I headed out to downtown Champaign, to take in an elsinore show at the High Dive. Ryan Groff and company have become one of my favorite local acts. Watching them transition from their folk-y tunes on their 2006 album “Nothing for Design” to their heavier, guitar solo enriched new material has been a lot of fun the last few times I’ve seen them.

I’m getting familiar with “Landlocked,” which they closed with last night. It’s the first new song I heard them play, and I’ve heard them play it a few times now. The last section of the song is the best part, it is an instrumental build from scratch into chaos and its fun to watch in the live setting. They also played “The General,” “Gasoline” and “Antonymity,” all of which should be on elsinore’s new album, although lead singer Ryan Groff hinted that “Antonymity” may be some sort of bonus track.

The band has been at work on this new album for quite a while (they’ve been playing “Landlocked,” “Gasoline” and “Antonymity” for a while now), and it should be released in the summer. However, Groff gave the crowd a juicy tidbit of information when he said they plan to release a tour EP so fans don’t have to wait until July or August to hear some of the new material. He didn’t give a specific release date for the EP, but keep your ears open because I have a feeling it will come out sooner rather than later.

“The Long Run” was the sole representative from “Nothing for Design” in elsinore’s set last night. I definitely like watching them play the new material, but I have to say I missed “Vampire in My Town” and “Timid Maggie Mae,” which are usually standards in their sets. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to have to trade the lively cover of Beck’s “Debra” with an appearance from Larry Gates. All in all it was a good way to spend a Saturday night.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.