Recap Snake Rattle Rattle Snake NYE at Hi-Dive

Magic Cyclops was the unannounced MC, helping to kick the night off with everyone’s favorite faux British accent. He announced each band with the drunken slur and spacey witticisms that many have come to know and love.

Crystal Mouse Collection features two cellos and sparse, at times oversimplified, drums. The group played spot-on and made no mistakes, with very little dillydallying between songs. For NYE, Charly “The City Mouse” Fasano, a punk-rock poet whose verse is competent and insightful, guested the group for one song. The group’s songs blend, but are easy on the ears.

Kingdom Of Magic could have been considered a strange follow-up act, but we are in Denver, where eclectic lineups are often welcomed. Drummer Andrew Lindstrom and bassist Joe Ramirez, along with the distorted guitar work of Luke Fairchild, comprise one of the heaviest rhythm sections in town. These three laid down the law of hard rock with their epic vocals and thudding bass, and ended the set with all of the band members using their guitars and amps to flood the room with abstract feedback and noise. This informed us, in no uncertain terms, that KOM explores the soundscape a bit more than it is given credit for doing.

Magic Cyclops counted in the New Year, and Snake Rattle Rattle Snake took the stage. Vocalist Hayley Helmericks sang to the crowd like she owned it, while the entire band let its varied roots show. Each of the six people in Snake Rattle is in it for a reason, and you get the strange feeling that to lose any member would be to encounter a different animal entirely. The room was packed like the Tokyo Metro when the band played, but several people still attempted to stumble-dance to the expertly dark ultra-rhythm for which SRRS is gradually becoming more known. Drums, guitars, bass, and even the vocals were percussive, and weighed by the heavy pulse and hard beat of these songs.

At the end of the night, bands and friends were drinking at the bar, and everyone was dodging the half-dozen vomit spots on the sidewalk that commemorated the dawn of a New Year. It was a fairly epic night, indeed.