CONCERT REVIEW: Rad Bromance @ World Cafe Live 12/22

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CONCERT REVIEW: Rad Bromance @ World Cafe Live 12/22

POSTED: Thursday, December 23, 2010, 7:00 PM

Filed Under: Music | Concert Review concert photos

Photo | Ryan Carey

Seeing an all-male Lady Gaga tribute band proves two ancient theories. 1) A well crafted pop song will sound good in any musical genre. 2) At a big enough rock show, no amount of context-cues will stop people from yelling out "Freebird!" Scientists say that the eyes like new things, the ears like familiar things. This explains why people usually don't go out to see movies they've already seen, but they only go out to see bands they already know. Rad Bromance figured out a pretty cool trick. By paying tribute to Lady Gaga, they are playing all songs that everybody knows, whether they know they know them or not. I've never in my life listened to Lady Gaga, or so I thought. But it's easy to forget how pervasive pop-music can be in our culture, because I found myself familiar with all but two songs from their show. And the two that I didn't know, I became familiar with instantly--because that's the (somewhat shallow but not unimportant) emotional payoff of well-written pop music: a sense of instant familiarity. So, what does Rad Bromance sound like? Honestly? Imagine Def Leppard-era glam-metal with semi-hardcore breakdowns. Chunky guitars, tastefully utilized synth, heavy drumming, and a front-man who could have been a David Bowie/Scott Weiland test-tube nephew (somewhat scaled back on charisma and over-all talent--which is to say, still impressive). All-together, think The Darkness with grungier riffs. Rad Bromance (I'm not sure if this is true to their name, or in-spite of it) really explores the cock-rock in Gaga's music. For paying tribute to a star whom--my imagination dictates--is covered 99% of the time by drag queens, Rad Bromance has an aura of truly 80's style "let's get laid" testosterock. I'm not exactly sure what variety of flamboyance I was expecting here, but if you wandered by the bar with no context in mind, you would think they are any other dude-rock band. Except with hooks so catchy it's wrong. They are local to Philly, so you will probably have an opportunity to catch them. Not a Lady Gaga fan, you say? Irrelevant. Rad Bromance isn't remotely 'about' Lady Gaga, as much it is about dudes using a brilliantly simple idea and competent execution to write their own ticket. I hate them the same way I hate the guy who invented the pet-rock: with envy for how easy their lives are going to be because they thought of it first. And I don't even want to think about what kind of 'attention' from the ladies they must be getting. Rah-rah ooh-la-la, indeed.

Photo | Ryan Carey

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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