“Welcome to a tour of Carrboro’s finest parking lots,” joked Andrew Snee, a lead singer and guitarist for Chapel Hill band SAD Magazine.
In the middle of his band’s set yesterday at the 14th annual Carrboro Music Festival, this joke ellicited chuckles from the crowd. But it also accurately described the backdrop for the show — a parking lot on Carrboro’s East Main Street.
The lot constituted the WCOM Radio stage at the all-day, free music festival. At this stage, the crunching under your feet was gravel instead of the token broken bottles of a rock club.
Attracting a mostly middle-age crowd — if you exclude the toddlers and dogs — SAD Magazine played a set filled with a generous mix of pop-rock (“Maybe Tonight”) and some jam-band knockoffs (“Low in Tellico”).
But it was most striking that songs like “Make Me Run” and “Satellite” had the sound of late ’90s emo, reminiscent of bands like Braid and Jets to Brazil.
The diversity in style kept the set fresh, and the distinction between songs kept my interest.
Another refreshing feature of the show was that Robert Graham, also a guitarist for the band, shared lead singing duties with Snee. Rather than producing a disjointed sound, the split vocals created a melodic dualism.
The crowd, although small in number, swayed along, tapped their feet and applauded generously.
Listening to SAD Magazine did not invoke emotion in or inspire me. Much like that song on the radio you’ve heard too many times but can’t help but listen to once more, the band’s ambient sound was catchy enough to enjoy without providing more than a soundtrack to a sunny September afternoon.
But the show was certainly an improvement to the gravelly, drab Main Street parking lot.
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