Mellowdrone

Spaceland - January 26, 2006

Live Review by Amber Henson

Mellowdrone’s new album, Box, drops March 7th, and a Thursday night residency at Spaceland throughout the month of January gave L.A. audiences a chance to preview this promising disc.  Even if the last night of the residency wasn’t quite a blowout, it was still an exciting event. 

The band’s output resembles Jeff Buckley and Bends-era Radiohead.  Lead singer Jonathan Bates is clearly trying to vocally emulate the late Buckley, and, impressively, he does a pretty good job of it.  He is joined by Tony DeMatteo on guitar, and recent additions Cami Gutierrez on bass/keyboard and Brian Berg on drums.  (Box, which includes material from two previously issued EPs, is largely a one-man show.)

Mellowdrone are stronger in studio than on stage, but this could be partially because of the recent addition of touring band members.  Perhaps this is also hard to gauge because watching a Los Angeles audience respond to a band is seldom thrilling.  Bates connected with the audience, but there was very little chemistry or interaction between the members.

About halfway through the set, Bates said, “So here’s a love song.”  The love song turned out to be “Orange Marmalade.”  Bates started out whistling, and then came the lyrics:  “Tell me that you love me baby one more time, one more time slowly.”  “Orange Marmalade” has the feel of early Coldplay, and was one of the more touching songs in the set.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the night, though, came a few songs later, as soon as everyone realized that the cover song that the band was playing was, in fact, Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”

After about ten songs, Bates thanked the audience very much and his band left the stage, leaving the computer’s reverb going.  Mellowdrone have a lot of potential, especially once they get more comfortable with the new lineup.