Dropping Daylight preview

Dropping Daylight
House Of Blues, Chicago
Monday, June 25, 2007

As pop punk bands continue to welcome high-speed guitar solos into their recordings — a technique frequently used to cover up thin songwriting — the guitar experiences a revival while the music regresses. Dropping Daylight think they have a solution for this.

For it they have vocalist Sebastian Davin, who also happens to play the piano. As the title track to their Octone Records debut begins its coda, Davin unleashes a fury of notes so striking you begin to wonder if your CD copy of Brace Yourself was double masked with a Dream Theater album. “Well that’s different,” you furrow.

Different is good when you consider the current landscape (DD are opening for Flyleaf). But other than piano drills, the band almost go out of their way to not reinvent the wheel. Once the initial effect subsides, Davin almost becomes an obstacle in the same way The Corrs would bullheadedly push Irish folk instruments into their saccharine pop. Listening to “Take A Photograph” while surfing the Internet might lead you to believe you’ve stumbled onto a Web site that has started playing its own music, so roughly layered are Davin’s parts — one reason why Dropping Daylight find themselves in the dark.

— Kevin Keegan

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly