Official website: http://www.landinggear.org (not working last I checked though)

Personnel:

Jay Hurley - high notes (guitar/vocals)
Rob Robelb - low notes (bass)
Dave West - skins (drums)
Mykl Westbrooks - gizmos & gadgets (lead guitar)

The last time I saw Landing Gear at the Uptown Bar they totally blew my mind. Maybe it was because I was drunk. Maybe it was because the performance was totally awesome. But since I couldn't decide which I didn't review that show. (I was convinced I was hearing one of the best shows I'd heard in years, so it's a remarkable feat on Landing Gear's part regardless.) However, I do remember the after-party quite well and telling bass player Rob Robelb after the show that the band were so good I could not believe they were not embarking on a European Festival tour for the summer of 2002.

In any case, Landing Gear is a great band and would fare well on a European festival tour. Jay Hurley has been, and still is writing some of the best love and pop songs in town, songs that if they could find their way onto the radio more frequently would satisfy a much larger audience than Landing Gear currently cultivates. But Saturday night's show at the Uptown Bar was lacking a certain something. Maybe it was that the mix wasn't quite right (bass was too low) until their third song ("Surprise, Surprise.") Maybe it was that front man Jay Hurley was distracted or lacked energy. Maybe it was that the turnout was less than one might have hoped for on a Saturday night. Or maybe it was just weird Karma due to the waning moon. Who knows. I can't really put my finger on it.

About halfway through the set Hurley remarked "We're gonna keep rollin' out the hits....one after another," disappointed perhaps with the crowd's reaction to the previous song. The following song (a hit) "Space Needle" was another from their most recent (untitled) EP. "Tempe, AZ" from the same EP followed and demonstrated some of the energy I missed from their previous show, Mykl and Jay playing their guitars to their amps and Rob Robelb serenading drummer Dave West. Mykl's guitar sang brilliantly as it frequently does throughout the set, and Bec Smith's backing vocals were always a soothing undercurrent, never upstaging Hurley's. "Wrecked" and "Turn It" finished off the set, and although an encore was requested, Hurley's ripping the strings off his guitar during the closing banging's of the last song eliminated that possibility, perhaps intentionally. Who knows. I didn't ask.