Opening bands are hardly ever more than a sacrificial lamb, placed before a dead audience to whet their musical appetites. True to form, meowskers laid himself upon the alter of Schine Underground Monday night and played his heart out, to little avail

The man who called himself meowskers opened, in fact, an entire three-day concert series put on by UU Concerts. Monday night’s acts were said performer and Surprise Me Mr. Davis, a collaboration between performers The Slip and Nathan Moore.

Tomorrow night’s concert will feature hip-hop acts Thing One, Fat Camp and Matisyahu, and will be followed by an open party at the Hillel Center. Wednesday’s acts are Sam Kininger from Soulive and Pocketdwellers.

At least meowskers was not alone. Mark Freedman, bassist and guitarist for The Slip, joined him on stage for a set of 10 brief songs, which the audience talked over throughout. The music was experimental rock, featuring keyboards, bass and guitar playing, all on top of drum beat samples and recorded sound effects.

In meowskers’ song ‘Pterodactyl,’ he repeated that word over and over while playing screeching pterodactyl-esque noises over the keyboard background.

The highlight of the set was in fact Freedman’s crisp and technically impressive bass playing. He also put in double duty on the guitar and keyboards. Freedman’s silent, intense persona balanced meowskers’ over-the-top actions and facial expressions.

Freshman business major Peter King did not enjoy meowskers’ offerings.

‘It was like a slow emo band, it wasn’t a band for a concert,’ he said. He and freshman art major Christina Mirando came to hear The Slip.

Apparently, so did many others. Many mentioned The Slip, but none were familiar with meowskers or Nathan Moore. The concert sold out all 350 tickets before the first band took the stage, said Adam Gold, general manager of WERW. Gold put the event together with Adam Gorode, co-executive director of University Union Concerts and Sarah Usher, public relations director for UU Concerts.

Fortunately, those interested in The Slip were not disappointed. The band is made up of brothers Andrew and Brad Barr, guitarist and drummer respectively, and Freedman, who plays bass and guitar. Their combination with Moore as Surprise Me Mr. Davis played loud and long, and no conversations could be heard over the music. Jamming with an intense folk-rock style, Surprise Me called to mind the sounds of Credence Clearwater Revival and O.A.R.

Gold said the sound came from the combination of The Slip’s jazz and rock roots and Moore’s folk style.

‘Their sound allows you to immerse yourself,’ Gorode said.

Surprise Me got the crowd involved with antics as well as music. Moore, soloing on guitar, managed to pull no less than seven foam balls from his mouth. He also appealed to the audience’s distaste for Syracuse’s only cola option, Pepsi.

Picking up a bottle of Coke, Moore joked that ‘we’ve been doing a lot of Coke on this tour. It’s so much better than Pepsi.’

When this drew loud cheers from the students, Moore continued, ‘That was weird. Do you all really feel that strongly about it?’

Soft drinks aside, those in attendance felt strongly about the solid performance of Surprise Me Mr. Davis.

‘I’d see them again any time they come around me,’ said undeclared freshman Eric Curtin, who had never heard the band before.

When asked what genre Surprise Me would fall into, Zach Ainslie, junior resource management major, could not decide. ‘How would you classify this music? I’m not even sure,’ he said.

Despite not being able to identify the music, Ainslie had no problem giving great praise for the band.

‘If they came back here, I’d check them out again.’ Ainslie said.

Published on April 4, 2005 at 12:00 pm