We need a new term for “boys band” that still incorporates fun and energy but is funkier, more soulful and embraces gender fluidity. Then I can use that to describe Static Panic’s CD release at the Turf Club Saturday night. The joint was jumping, joyous, young, all-gender-embracing and there to dance with Static Panic.
Their sound has an unmistakable Prince influence from the combination of poetry and music to the vocal range of Ro Lorenzen, from well-placed high pitched screech, to the calming, sexy guttural low notes. And while Lorenzen seemed to glow Saturday night, they didn’t outshine the bandmates, but illuminated them. The band is young, but you wouldn’t know it to hear them. And again, taking a page from Prince, they have surrounded themselves with great talent and it fills the stage. Each song is a wild ride.
Glow (the song and the CD) is about the courage in finding strength in your strangeness. It’s really the theme of their music and it brings a swish and swagger to everyone in the room. There’s an exotic dance beat to the song and the vocals are like honey. SMS is a softer song but so dance-able, a call back to disco.
The song I’m going to think about most in the next two weeks is It Really Do Be Like That (Sometimes). It’s a young translation of Murphy’s Law and I just love the idea of embracing that frustration and moving on.
Glow is billed as ” interesting juncture in self-development for the squad called Static Panic. It comes at a time of love and loss. A time of transformation. A time of new paths and new challenges of the ever changing world around us.” All I know is – it sounds like a celebration of people coming into their own – both personally but also with the addition of bass player Drew Mabusth. It feels like each time I see them they are closer to what they are supposed to be.
Mostly Minnesota 