Now/It's: Future Generations at The High Watt
In all honesty, indie rock is not necessarily my go to choice of concert. At one point or another, it certainly would have been - Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, The Walkmen - a "without hesitation" move to see any and all indie rock bands that came through town, had I been of concert attending age (ie: under 18).
So where (and why) did my fervent fandom of indie rock subside? If I had to guess, it would likely have been some time around 2009, maybe 2010, when "indie folk" began to find its footing within the fledgling Millennial zeitgeist. Simultaneously, indie rock became so vague and seemingly vacuous with more or less an influx of acts that would oversaturate the market to the point that uniquity was virtually impossible if career longevity were one's goal.
All that being said - as music has forever been and will always be cyclical - the days of laziness through prescribing the title of "indie rock" to any and all bands that feature electric guitar, bass, drums, and maybe some keys or something are gone. In their place come the hyper-specific, uber-showmanship of truly modernized music - in the sense that an act/band/artist can only survive if they can fully identify the avenues of best success - or in less frilly terms, independent music is at an all time high (rock, folk, pop, you name it).
A prime example of such purposeful uniqueness within the nebulous confines of independent music is none other than Brooklyn frenetic synth (keys) party pop-ers Future Generations. Granted, that's probably not the strongest of genre descriptors (that stuff is hard!), but that's largely due to the fact that Future Generations manages to toe the line of many an indie sensibility, and thus, there multi-plane sound sets them apart from indie bands of old.
Full disclosure, in looking at the Brooklyn quintet on stage, its hard not to peg them as a synth pop band in the vein of Walk the Moon, where bouncy choruses and saccharine verses of vapidness run rampant. Instead, you get a highly dynamic sound intertwined with a damn good live presence, thanks in large part to front man Eddie Gore's distinct ability to shrug of the usual Brooklyn indie electronica sensibilities and meld his manic movements along with solid melodies. All in all the band is pretty well honed in terms of their live presence, and their Nashville stop in particular featured a largely communicative and cooperative crowd, which is no small feat, especially in Nashville.
As it would turn out, Gore is in fact from Nashville, so a lot of the crowd was somewhat of a homer crowd, but don't let that distract you from the fact that, home crowd or not, Gore, Mike Sansevere, Eric Grossman, Dylan Wells, and Devon Sheridan have created a tight set. It'll be interesting to see where a band like Future Generations finds itself in the coming years, but no matter where that may actually be, its almost a foregone conclusion that they're going to put on a hell of an awesome show.
