Have you ever been a part of a great crowd at an epic rock show?

The kind of crowd that becomes a living, breathing, thing? A sea of buzzing, sweaty, frenzied humanity, urging and inspiring it's champions to take their playing to theretofore undiscovered heights?  The kind of crowd that makes band members to look at each other in a mixture of awe, appreciation and pure joy?

Man, it's fun to be a part of one of those crowds.

Now, imagine the opposite of that.

Friday night, downtown's all ages concert venue, The Refuge, played host to a pretty darn good rock show. The Northgate Project, The Common Men, The Generals, Dusty Brown and Eight Four Seven gave it their all, but unfortunately the deck was stacked against them.

The crowd of 40 odd people couldn't, or wouldn't match the energy put forth by the assembled rockers.

At no time during the nearly four hour show was there anything resembling a dance floor.  Actually, that's not entirely true. In front of the stage, for most of the evening, was a space the length of the stage and probably 15 feet deep, completely void of humanity.

The empty space kind of resembled a dance floor, if only someone had danced.

We arrived as The Northgate Project was finishing up, about 7:45pm. As they broke down their equipment, I surveyed the scene and spoke to promoter Casey McKracken.  Of the venue, McKracken said "It's just something that this town has always needed." I would agree with the sentiment. A midsize (240 capacity, though it looks like it could hold more) all ages club right in the heart of Midtown (1723L St.) is certainly an asset to Sacramento.

The room looks like what it is, a multipurpose room for the St. Johns Lutheran Church. It won't win any beauty contests, but it's a comfortable space, with an assorted hodgepodge of comfortable seats and clothed tables spread around the rear two thirds of the room. The restrooms are located behind the slightly elevated stage, and the band members milled about the venue when they weren't performing. 

Davis' post punk trio The Common Men took the stage next and inspired the crowd to, well, mostly sit on their hands and clutch their coffees close to their breasts. They played a nice six song set, highlighted by their radio track "Hanged Men", a really solid punk song, which reminded me a bit of The Clash.

They ended their set with lead singer/guitarist Kevin Ian on his hands and knees ripping his guitar strings violently from the neck of his guitar as he and his bandmates crashed and banged and feedbacked their way to a noisy crescendo. The lack of energy in the room was certainly not on them.

Up next were Sacramento indie two-piece, The Generals. Consisting of only a drummer and guitarist, both of whom sing, they played a remarkable set. I'd heard them described as being "U2-like", and there is certainly a little bit of "The Edge" in Matt Sertich's guitar playing.
They create a huge sound with recorded synth tracks underneath the driving drum beats of Kirk Jonowiak and the ambient guitar play of Sertich.

If you were going to make a classic 80's movie, but with a present day soundtrack, you might want to recruit The Generals for the project.
During their set, the lack of crowd energy reached awkward levels. Between songs you could hear a pin drop. At one point Sertich commented on the elephant in the room "It's so quiet".

Several members of the crowd shushed him.

Jonowiak tried to break the ice between the next two songs with a joke "What did Kenny G say when he got on the elevator?" he asked before quickly answering himself "This place rocks". Was it a subtle jab at the crowd or just a cheesy joke? Probably the latter, but it works just as well as the former.

Awkward silences have no place at rock shows.

Up next was Dusty Brown, fresh off a memorable set at the Sacramento Electronic Music Festival a few short weeks ago. I didn't get a chance to see them there, but the highlight of my experience there-in was Tycho featuring D.B. guitarist (Zach Brown) and singer (Jessica Brown).

They played a great set of their drum and bass heavy electronica, with Zach's guitar and Jessica's haunting vocals creating layers of sound that flooded the room.

This is music that is meant to be danced to, nay, demands to be danced to. I asked Steven Chea about their performance at SEMF , "They played nearly the same set, and it absolutely killed".

It's rough when the man in the room dancing the hardest is Dusty himself, throwing down behind his MOOG. Before their last song of the evening, he chastised the crowd "If you guys could stand back another 30 feet, it'd make it a little more awkward" .

I made it a point to relieve him of the mantle of biggest dancing fool, if only for one song.

After their set I caught up with Zach outside "I really feed off the energy of the crowd." he said. On this night the pickings were slim.

The last act of the evening was Eight Four Seven, who like D.B. are deeply steeped in electronica, but the quartet features a lot of heavy, crashing guitars to go along with the beats.

They recently toured with fellow Sacramento band the Deftones, and there are definite similarities between the two bands.

The kids pulverized their instruments, as if they owed them money. To their credit they were able to induce the crowd to within 10 feet of the stage, and there was some serious (semiserious?) head bobbing going on. It never quite reached the point of headbanging.

I apologize if I am judging the audience a bit harshly, but the good news is, the situation is easily remedied. "All ages" doesn't have to be an impediment. I mean, how many 15 to 20 year old kids are there within a 20 mile radius of downtown Sac who enjoy seeing live music and are looking for something to do on a friday night? 

A crapton, give or take.

They need to do a better job of tapping into this market. The average age at an all ages dry show in a youth center should never be mid to late twenties. (there were as many 50 somethings in attendance as there were teenagers.)

In my formative years I would have been ecstatic to have a place like Refuge to hang out. Sure beats the pants off the AM PM parking lot.

Here's hoping the next show has a crowd worthy of the performers.