Flashlights Amp Up The Wattage

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 21, 2013 8:40PM

Giant alligators, news of the odd media nuggets, retirees, Limp Bizkit: these are things that come to mind when you think of Florida. Raucous power pop tinged rawk isn't usually in that consideration set. Flashlights shows the error in that thinking. We're going to blame the fact that we've never heard of them, despite the band having a number of releases reaching back a couple of years, on their location. Had someone described the band to us prior to hearing their forthcoming Don't Take Me Seriously EP we wouldn't have believed in their existence. Well, based on sound alone.

Once you start listening to the songs on the EP you see that the bright music jamming through your speakers is carrying tunes of yearning isolation. The title track's protagonist is invisible to all around him, and "Let's Talk" describes the dissolution of some relationship. It could be romantic or it could just be friends growing apart, but either way the narrator is alone at the end. The EP closes with a re-recording of "Choking," a track from I'm Not Alone, a previous release. In its new incarnation it carries the same hummable melody but the guitars are shreddier, and the drums are angrier. It makes you wonder what's happened in the intervening years. Whatever it was, it helped the band sharpen their attack.

Flashlights play tomorrow, May 22, at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 9 p.m., $8 or FREE with RSVP, 21+