Photos by Chris Gray
Is Spain Colored Orange the Badfinger of Texas? Why not?
Thursday at the Continental Club, the local quintet's heavy, lush pop was dense and intricate, but never at the expense of melody. Its members have also heard at least one jazz album in their lifetimes, evident in their frisky interplay and consistent groove.
Multiple Houston Press Music Award winners in 2006 and this year, SCO has been tagged as one of Houston's most likely to break out for years, and that still holds true. Continental bartender Jamison dubbed "Black Sabbath meets Stevie Wonder," not an off-base tag at all.
Anchored by Gilbert Alfaro's electric-piano ragtime funk, several songs Thursday - from both 2006 Houston Press Music Awards Album of the Year Hopelessly Incapable of Standing in the Way and this year's self-released follow-up Sneaky Like a Villain - several songs could have almost passed for Maroon 5 in a blind taste test... maybe.
Heavy and light, Spain Colored Orange couches its subversiveness in catchy piano chords, but when all five lock into the same lick - often led by Eric Jackson's brazen trumpet - pop flies out the window in favor of an entropic contest to see who can hold on the longest. Thursday night was like a jazz funeral at Sgt. Pepper's house. - Chris Gray
Spain Colored Orange plays Wednesday, December 10, at Rudyards, 2010 Waugh, with Gentleman Auction House and Motion Turns It On.