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Sick Puppies Warehouse Live June 4, 2011
Aftermath is not going to lie: Leaving Summer Fest early to go see Sick Puppies at Warehouse Live wasn't a top priority for us, but a show's a show, and we thought we would do our best to keep our heads up, our ears open and our hearts light, in spite of having to leave an awesome music festival.
We didn't have to try very hard.
Before long, we were bobbing our heads alongside everyone else at Warehouse. It was no Summer Fest, but the Puppies put on quite the show for the nearly-full venue, and it wasn't just another cookie-cutter rock and roll concert. That's another thing we thought going in, but the Australian trio kicked it up a notch.
Four songs in, the members disappeared backstage. Candles and stools were brought out to set the stage for an acoustic performance, while the Jeopardy! theme played through the PA.
They came back out, promising something special and began their acoustic set with a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall." How cool, we thought. Showing love for your predecessors while staying relevant with your fans? Well done.
But the covers kept coming.
The Australian alt-rockers covered Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of," Cee-Lo Green's "Fuck You" and Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." And those are only the ones Aftermath remembers.
Some fans began to gripe at the number of covers after a while, and a few even walked out; but just as many, if not more of them were cheering the Puppies on and singing along. Our question is, what's the rule on covering a bevy of other bands' songs? It seemed like covers made up about a third of their set.
Although Puppies front man, Shimon Moore, was a bit eccentric for our taste, he got this crowd into the palm of his hand early in the evening, and he kept them there for most of the night.
"When I say, 'How do you feel?' you say, 'Fuck yeah!'" he shouted. "Now how do you feel, Houston?!"
...
Feeling fine (fuck yeah) seemed to be the theme of the night for all of Houston. Most music lovers in town were on the other side of downtown at Summer Fest, but a good number of them were at Warehouse Live. And whether it be here or there, Aftermath was just glad to see so many people enjoying music.
Personal Bias: We used to love that song "It's All The Same," and had all but forgotten about it until we heard it live Saturday. That doesn't change the fact that "Going Down" is terrible, though.
Overheard In the Crowd: "I didn't know Sick Puppies were a fucking cover band."
Random Notebook Dump: We went home, looked up one of the Puppies' videos on YouTube and saw the lead singer wearing a Ween T-shirt. Funny that Ween was playing a show at the same time in the same town, just at a different location.
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