Last night I went to the album release show for Quitter UK’s debut album at Iota in Arlington, VA. Quitter features Todd Watts (my officemate) from Emmet Swimming, Scott Brotemarkle and Chuck Andrada from Smartbomb, along with David Strickland and Eric Vislay. The show was to celebrate the release of their first album, The Cleveland Office. The name of the album is actually a reference to a joke that Todd kept making when the band played my company’s Christmas party a couple years back. Before they went on stage he would introduce members of the band to people in the company as being from “the Cleveland office.”

Seeing Quitter play is like hanging out with old friends. Even though they haven’t been together for very long, the band is incredibly comfortable with each other and has a lot of fun on stage. They’ve all been friends for years and their interaction with each other and the audience makes for a fun show. They try to work amusing clips of other songs (Guns N Roses is always a favorite) into the act, and if somebody brings up a song they try to break into it (hearing David start playing Van Halen’s “Jump” on the accordian was all they needed to have fun with that one).

Todd sings about half of their songs, and Scott and Chuck split the rest. They’ve only got about an album’s worth of original Quitter material, but they played an Emmet track (”Off Key Choir”), a Smartbomb track (”Sputnik, Baby!”), and some great covers, including Elvis Costello’s “Radio, Radio”, Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry” and The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” The band had a great time playing, and it came through in the music. It took the sound guy at Iota a song or two to get the mix right, but once he did they sounded great. They don’t have any more shows scheduled as of yet, but when they do I’d highly recommend seeing them play live. They put on a great show.

Here’s the set list courtesy of Kerry Frey (vocals by Todd unless noted):

1. Waiting Around in the Dark (Chuck vox)
2. Maybe God is a Practical Joker (Chuck vox)
3. Honeysuckle
4. All That She Pretends (Scott vox)
5. Radio, Radio (Chuck vox)
6. Off Key Choir
7. Coming Home
8. Jump
9. Voices Carry
10. Not Enough You
11. Stay Up Late
12. Young Again
13. Waitress in the Sky (Scott vox)
14. Sweet Child o’ Mine (Scott vox)
15. Waltzing the New House
16. Fisherman’s Blues
17. Sputnik, Baby!
18. Maybe We Should Just Pretend (Chuck vox)
19. Where is My Mind? (Scott vox)

While I’m talking about the band, here’s a micro-mini review of the new album. It’s really strong and varied, with some great power pop and some low-key country and lounge music. Each of the vocalists has at least one standout song, with Chuck leading off the album with “Waiting Around in the Dark”. Scott only sings one track, but it’s the excellent “All That She Pretends”. If you could listen to just one song, give Todd’s “Coming Home” a shot. The album is available at Awarestore.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 18th, 2005 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Shows. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.