Do the Wave

xTian and I went to see Oakland band Rogue Wave at the very excellent venue Fillmore East (a redubbed Irving Plaza) on Saturday eve. For me, the show started out slow - despite a rowdy prophylactic balloon bandying about - but worked up into a crescendo. The centerpiece set was an enthusiastic rendition of "Bird on a Wire" straight into a drum frenzy, followed by a raucous "Lake Michigan". Chatty (in a good way) frontman, Zach Rogue, also played a couple of great acoustic songs in a callback set (including a beautiful "California"), and it rounded out will the full band "Love's Loss Guarantee". Overall, I'd give it a 'B', which might have been a 'B+' after free $20 iTunes gift card giveaway on our way out of the show, except that it's just a bunch of $20 worth of club tunes that I probably don't want anyway. Fech.