Rally Car - at The Legendary Red Rooster Bar, Burlington Ontario, June 1st 2007

Their MySpace page advertises them as “driven” and showing up a handful of hours early to Burlington’s Legendary Red Rooster vintage café demonstrates the truth of this statement in ways that no amount of fan-based street-team devotion could. Most people have never heard of RallyCar, unless they live and breathe MySpace blogs and click on every friend request they receive from a band attempting to broaden their audience – and truthfully, it was such a request, filtering in among a hoard of other bands, that introduced me to this band’s incredible sound, and better yet, their drive to somehow leave their mark on the Independent music scene.
Created four years ago by front-man Justin and guitarist Alex, RallyCar is a self-described alternative rock band hailing from Vancouver British Colombia. With songs that range from driving to surprisingly melodic, this is a band that is saturated in the potential to become much more than a bar-hopping/festival-playing indie-band.

There is an intensity present in their performance tonight that I have not seen in an indie-band before – something in the Justin (the vocalist)’s eyes when he sings that demonstrates just how willing they are to make sure that their band succeeds in as many ways possible. It is this intensity… this drive that will place them above all other independent bands, and especially all those other "MySpace bands."
The show begins at 11:00pm, after a trademark public sound check - The Red Rooster does this often – orchestrated by the bar’s one and only "sound-guy." The only glitch here – the band page advertised 7 as the start time, but the bar was decent enough to provide good food and some-form-or-other of entertainment in an excellent and rather amusing staff. By the time the show was underway, it was pretty apparent that Burlington Ontario was not necessarily "friendly" territory for RallyCar. Only two girls sitting at a somewhat uncomfortable bar table were actively there to see them specifically, and as the rest of the patrons filter in, they stake claims to simply being there to hear good music. And despite the lack of audience fandom, RallyCar delivers a show that not only showcased good independent music, but garnered them a few extra fans by the time they packed up and cleared the stage. Not that they don’t have any already – the band’s MySpace page is littered with comments declaring their "awesomeness" and unofficial street teams have already been created in the United Sates, France and the UK. And really, watching them perform on a dingy little stage to a smoky and somewhat tentatively accepting bar-room, it’s more than apparent why the MySpace generation is leeching onto them as tightly as possible.

Vocally, band-front-man Justin provides power in the sense of stage personality and vocal ability. His voice has the power to carry his lyrics across to an audience of mainly casual listeners and transform them into fans. His strength lies in the fact that his voice does not lose quality when taken out of the studio, and live, sounds just as stunning and as moving as it does recorded in a controlled environment. Of course, vocals are definitely not everything (even though they are rather important) and the men sharing the stage with Justin are equally as talented. In an interesting turn that is not normally seen in the indie-scene, backing harmonies are provided by bassist Dino (who is much more active and interesting to watch than most bassists). Surprisingly (or perhaps not, given the sheer talent possessed by this band) the harmonies are not confined to simple intervals, but weave in and out of each other to provide more than enough melodic variety to the listener. Dex (drums) proves interesting to watch – he sets his crash cymbals higher than is "normal" forcing himself to lift his arms and move with the music – while Alex (guitar) is one to watch for the simple intensity that he puts into his playing. All in all, the show was a spectacular success – even if "fan turn-out" was not all that apparent – and I will claim with complete lack of hesitance that RallyCar does indeed rock awesomely.

The band is currently finishing off a Canadian tour that will take them across the country until mid July and their growing fan-base is such that an international tour (France, Spain and the UK) is in the works for mid 2008.

Check out: Rallycarband.com


Review by Einat Brigler


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