Talisco

It was my first time at Last Exit Live, and my initial impressions were, "this is off the beaten path", and "have they been waiting for me to start the show?". It was just after 9 and the hallway shaped room was pretty empty, aside from a few people milling about on the patio. There was excitement in the air over the headlining band, Talisco, who had just performed a couple successful shows in Austin and is now in the midst of an American tour. One guy stopped me in the parking lot after the show and said, he had just seen them play twice at SXSW and was blown away that there were so few people here after their huge reception in Austin. Well it was Wednesday, and we were pretty far south of downtown Phoenix.

Despite all odds, the three bands on the bill put delivered energetic effort, playing as if the room was packed of screaming fans. Wyves brought out a solid following, opening the night on a high following recent performances at Valley Bar, and at McDowell Mountain Music Fest. A last minute addition of their keyboardist had the stage crammed, but not so that frontman, Corey Gloden couldn't dance and kick his way around with microphone cored wrapped around his arms. I could instantly tell that they are one of the better local bands in Phoenix and I was already looking forward to their next show.

I was eager to see what Talisco was all about, so I stuck around into Thursday morning to witness their entire interactive and entertaining set. If the French accent was enough entertainment, the band delivered solid track after track of pure pop rock. Despite mentioning how few people were in attendance more than a few times, it seemed as though the band was just happy to be playing for fresh faces after coming down from a wild week in Austin.