... and the band attacks. The cello and violin build to a frenzied pace. The song is familiar from the Austin radio waves, but I've never heard it like this. The applause has barely reached a crescendo when the band launches into their second song, the radio-friendly "Always a Friend" from the current album.
The audience response is huge, and the temperature in the room rises ten degrees due to the energy of the applause. The jackets come off, and everyone takes a long cool drink of water. David Pulkingham (guitar) pulls his blond hair up off his neck and grins at his band mates, Josh Gravelin (bass) and Hector Muñoz (drums). They are exuberant.
The band brings the energy down a notch for the plaintive ballad "Sister Lost Soul," a song about the friends who haven't lived to tell the tale.
With "Chelsea Hotel '78," he has our complete attention as he clearly and intimately paints a picture of living the punk rock dream and nightmare. The band layers and alternates the chorus: "and it makes no sense" ... "and it makes perfect sense" to a hypnotic end. It is more than good rock and roll; it is good theater.
As the opening bars of each song play, people cheer as if that was the song they've been waiting to hear. Perhaps they recognize tunes off the album, two days after the release. More likely they've heard them before, here at the Continental Club. Alejandro had a four-month Tuesday night residency with fellow musician David Garza while he "learned these songs."
But the Continental Club is not the only crucible which forged this band. They played Carnegie Hall too, as a string quartet. Brian Standefer (cello) and Susan Voelz (violin) have contributed to Alejandro's albums and tours for over ten years. Watching Susan in her elegant black dress, red boots stomping the distortion pedal, I become certain we should lobby for a new Grammy category for "Best Rock Violin."
In the middle, Alejandro is the conductor the band, subtly giving five people cues and blending the strings and hard-driving guitar rock into a cohesive whole. His cues to the audience are not so subtle. After the ballads and stories in the middle of the set, he brings the mood back to rocking, hard. He exhorts us to release our inner animal as they start up "Real as an Animal". The audience is a sea of waving arms, then closes with another radio favorite with a strong guitar hook, "Castanets."
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