Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer - The Khyber, 4/03/09



My new favorite band is the best band I found at SXSW that I didn't actually see at SXSW. Philadelphia's Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer has been on tour supporting The Pink Spiders since SXSW ended, the tour concluded tonight at The Khyber in Philadelphia with an early start all ages show. At SXSW in attempt to survey all possibilities, I carefully scanned the band list in alphabetical order. With close to 1,900 bands on the list this took weeks, and by the time I got to the end of the list and heard Zolof's "Death or Radio" they had already played their SXSW showcase. So stretching a little bit of SXSW back to Philadelphia was imperative.

Listen to Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer - "Death or Radio"




Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer consists primarily of Vince Ratti and Rachel Minton and live they add a drummer and I think there was a bass player tonight too who I could not see within the tight confines of The Khyber's upstairs venue, and I use the word venue loosely. The Kiera Plan opened with a tight twenty minute set, apparently shortened somewhat due to the extra hour it took to hook up the Khyber's PA system to the microphones. Zolof seemed like they'd be a fun rock & roll band, their song has been spinning in repeat play in my head ever since I first heard it in Austin, and they did not disappoint.



At one point Rachel's keyboard went out, and The Pink Spiders came onstage to sing the keyboard part.



Zolof rocks loudly and tunefully and the combination of Vince's guitar, Rachel's keyboards and vocals, and their well-written songs makes for a great synth-based sound on record which comes across even more powerfully live. The crowd, squeezed into the small area in front of the stage, bounced up and down in unison with the band, and the mix of catchy songs, exuberant performance and crowd energy makes Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer about the most fun a rock band can be. Together with Philadelphia's The Hustle and Brooklyn's Via Audio, Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer is going to help keep me young.



Later in the set, Rachel called on Soupy, lead singer of The Wonder Years to come up and sing.







Soupy doffed his coat, sang, did some extreme jumping up and down, sang some more, then put his coat back on and left the stage before the song was over.





Zolof has a must-read bio that begins:

Vince Ratti met Rachel Minton in summer camp in 2000. Vince was the 2-1 favorite in the potato sack races and Rachel had made a name for herself as the braces and headgear wearing champion of the "who can swing the highest on the tire swing" competitions. They crossed paths for the first time at the Good Humor Ice Cream truck where they both ordered Sno-cones. "I like to rock" said Vince. "I like to rock too" said Rachel. At that moment Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer was born...

Read the rest of their story on the website. Apparently they have a sense of humor too.


Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer - Schematics (2007)

Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer's myspace.
Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer's website.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering the Main Point, 1964 - 1981

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #5 Begining in 1964, The Main Point in Bryn Mawr provided the Philadelphia area with one of its most enjoyable venues for live music. Although it started as a folk based coffeehouse, all styles of music were presented over the years. Financial problems continually plagued the Main Point, and in spite of frequent benefit shows by artists who loved the place as much as the audience, the club finally closed in 1981. The following brief history is contained in an obituary of Jeanette O. Campbell, one of the founders and owners of the Main Point who died on October 22, 2006, written by Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer Sally A. Downey as reprinted on the Save Ardmore Coalition website. Jeanette Orndoff Campbell, 89, former owner of the Main Point, a music hall in Bryn Mawr where young talents including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor were introduced to local audiences, died of complications from hip surgery Oct. 22 at Stap...
Read more

Cream and Blind Faith at the Spectrum, Philadelphia, 1968 & 1969

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #3 (L-R) Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, & Eric Clapton I could not have foreseen it at the time, but looking back on a concert going history now entering it's fifth decade, my first three concerts were absolutely formative in the development of the music obsession that has driven life as we know it from that point forward. Attending a rock concert pre drivers license was no small feat, that I even got to these shows is the first indication that I knew I was onto something even if I couldn't quite explain it. I've already detailed my first concert (The Beatles at JFK Stadium) in my MMMM#1 . My second and third concerts took place at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, they were less than a year apart, and due to the fact that concerts never end at the time predicted, these concert experiences both ended with a very angry driver stuck waiting in the car outside the venue until the last encore had finished. I shot both concerts with the same starter...
Read more

And We Danced - Filming the Hooters Video, 7/27/85

Image
WXPN Most Memorable Musical Moment #4 "And We Danced" (picture sleeve above) was released in 1985 as the second single from the album, Nervous Night , the Hooters' major label debut for Columbia Records. Here's the video. The call went out to the Hooters' mailing list the last week of July 1985 that an audience with cars would be needed on the coming Saturday for a video shoot. Participants would report to the Exton Drive-In by late morning and be prepared to stay all day until after dark. This stage set, early in the day, was a warm-up for the crowd and probably a dry run for the production team for the night-time performance to be filmed later. The banner backdrop does not appear in the video. Some of the antique and custom cars that were on hand for the shoot. The production crew prepares the ticket booth for its shot. This is the film crew shooting the acoustic intro part of the song. The acoustic intro was shot twice, first with t...
Read more