Belgrade, Cruiser and Colors @ Yards Brewing Company.

Text by Scott Signorino. Image by Kate Bodnar.

Nothing says summer’s here quite like a 93-degree Friday evening in Philadelphia, punctuated by the Colors, Cruiser and Belgrade show at Yards Brewing Company.

Colors sports a lineup rich in Lower Bucks County talent – vocalist Mike Shaw fronted screamo powerhouse This Day Forward while skinsman T.J. DeBlois laid down the beats for A Life Once Lost, Halfway to Holland and the short-lived yet celebrated Like Lions. As Colors, they definitely wear the influences of their past bands on their sleeves. Colors rocketed through numbers from their debut CD such as “Four Lanes” and “Know When to Leave,” all of which were dealt with next to flawless precision. The guitarists alternated between delay-heavy rings and jagged, crispy licks, which were reminiscent of In Pieces, Thursday and Keepsake, flecked with the Pacific Northwest stylings of Minus the Bear, These Arms are Snakes and Sharks Keep Moving. Vocalist Mike Shaw prowled along the edge of the stage and opted for a melodic approach not unlike the singing heard on “U.S. Songs” by Elliot.   For a newer group, Colors showed a lot of promise. Given the sum of its parts, it seems to be a promise that will be kept as the band progresses and grows.

Local “beach rock” stalwarts Cruiser took the stage for what would be their self-proclaimed “last show for awhile” as the band assembles new material. Now, if you’ve read any press regarding Cruiser, you know that “summery” is a ubiquitous descriptor that follows this band anytime they’re mentioned and they lived up to that adjective on Friday night, to be sure.

Head Cruiser-in-charge Andy States lead his band of merry musicians through all six tracks from their self-titled EP.  Drummer Jonathan Van Dine seemed to take a more adventurous approach behind the kit, opting for more technical fills, rolls and high hat sizzles than usual while lead axeman Josa Lazas replaced many of the programming and sequencing found on the record with tasty pentatonic scales.

Songs like “Don’t Go Alone” and the feel-good-hit-of-last-summer, “Moving to Neptune,” took on a whole new flavor as Lazas threw caution to the wind and let his fingers fly with great abandon. It all seemed indicative of a band eager to start writing new songs.

Headliners Belgrade had the floor after Cruiser and showed everyone in the room why they were the band that recently opened for the Appleseed Cast. What stood out most was the maturation in vocalist Mike McNelis. Gone are the poppy-emo waxings of his former project, The Progress, and it seems that McNelis has graduated into the Jeremy Enigk School of post-rock, which complements Belgrade’s dynamic rather perfectly.

McNelis’s pipes carried Belgrade through their eight-song set consisting mostly of tracks from their self-tiled LP released in the spring. Songs like the bombastic, guitar heavy “Projection” and the reverb wrought “Truth Serum” filled the venue with what could be best described as a nighttime drive across the surface of the moon.

What was incredibly noteworthy was the rhythm section. Belgrade’s bassist Derek Zglenski delivered an incredibly flowing, intelligent, low-end, which accentuated all of drummer Jeff Meyer’s perfectly placed hits.

McNelis thanked the crowd for sticking around to watch his band’s set as they launched into set-closer “Wasted” ending a very solid evening with a brilliant display of local talent.