Greenville Scene

by: Kevin Miller

The names often given to subgenres of rock music can be quite limiting to the labeled artist, but for all practical and linguistic purposes “shoegaze” was alive and well at Gypsy G’s on May 25th.

Backseat Dreamer play a form of dream pop that harkens back to the late 80’s and early 90’s shoegaze scene of England (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive) but pushes toward the future with the use of live electronics and a swarm of dance beats. They are led by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Sean Neuse and backed up live by Danny Doyle on bass, Brian Draper on guitar, and Michael Barksdale on drums.

Being that it was their first show and that they were using live electronics and sequencers, I was a little nervous that something might go wrong, but this just added to the surreal feeling that was in the air. The show started off with an intro called, “I Still Feel the Sunlight” that segued into “February Fires,”where the washing and adventuresome guitar work of Brian Draper began to transpire and texture the rest of the evening’s short but beautiful set. Sean’s vocal delivery was slightly halted by microphone difficulties and a sea of reverb, which kind of brought on an Alan Vega meets “Idiot-era” Iggy Pop vibe but stacked up well with the continuing sonic force. Next up in the set was “Heartache” followed by “Flashpoints” which gave way to an infectious Peter Hook/Stephen Morris-style (New Order) dance beat showing off the tight rhythm section.

As the set moved on, Sean skipped back and forth between the sequencer, guitar, keyboards, and vocal duties managing to keep his mini-symphony of soundscapes afloat. The next song “Captured by Twilight” continued the dreaminess, which led into the highlight track “Gold Dust,” dropping like a siren of disco wailing through space. As the evening’s set closed with “Keep You Forever,” I kept hearing the echo of Lou Reed deep within my mind whispering “electricity comes from other planets,” but on May 25th the “electricity” was coming from Backseat Dreamer in, of all places, Greenville, SC.

www.myspace.com/backseatdreamer