Tour: Echo Me, Astronaut/Danger:Radio/The Scene Aesthetic
Venue: The Bottleneck, Lawrence, Kansas
Date: 8-3-06

They are one of those bands that can only be heard of on Purevolume, on Myspace, or by word of mouth; yet still have a good-sized fan base. That’s right, it’s The Scene Aesthetic.

Doors were at 5, show started at 6, supposedly. In reality, the show began about 40 minutes late, but once the ball got rolling, there was no stopping the three bands who performed at the bottleneck that night: Echo Me, Astronaut, Danger: Radio, and The Scene Aesthetic. In the order listed, the first act didn’t pull anyone out of their seats, since everyone had been sitting comfortably for a while, until their last two songs. Unfortunately, the late start cut every band short, because of another show scheduled afterward, but every band pulled it’s own weight.

When Danger: Radio came on, the crowd was getting pumped, maybe four or five rows surrounded the stage, and the party began. Besides lack of acknowledgement from the crowd when it came to applause, the band played a whole set of catchy songs and didn’t lose any energy. It may have just looked like a couple barefoot guys, along with few guys who looked like they just woke up, but I assure you they made a few new fans that evening. Andrew(Zero)’s flawless vocals, a few dance moves and solos from the rest of the band, and an overall nice performance.

With about an hour left of performance time, The Scene Aesthetic took a quiet step up on the stage and began their acoustic set with “Dear Time Traveler.” Eric sported a scruffy beard that sort of had disguised him until up on stage, and Andrew didn’t look worn out at all from just playing an entire set with his side project (Danger: Radio). The crowd finally started singing along to the chorus of a couple tracks, such as “Alvin Maker's Greensong,” “The Alamo Is No Place For Dancing,” and obvious favorite, “Beauty in the Breakdown,” which ended the set. I believe it went something like…[awkward pause between songs] “Breakdown!” yelled a random fan. “Oh don’t worry, we’ll play it…,” replied Andrew with an assured tone.

The only letdown was when they announced that they were all out of CDs to sell, but luckily they still had plenty of t-shirts to make up for that. A full acoustic set showed the substance put into each song with only one guitar and backup keyboard, and the strength of Andrew and Eric’s vocals. Overall, it was an intimate concert with a small group of people who all enjoyed the heartfelt music of each band who performed that night.

source: http://www.forthesound.com/Album_Reviews/p2001_articleid/467