Live Review: Look Mexico, Dear & the Departed, and Gabriel the Marine @ The Studio 3-10-10

“You Stay. I Go. No Following.” The song began like most Look Mexico songs, quiet, before picking it up sonically with their musical prowess. This was the first song the 5-piece played at the Studio of Webster Hall on Wednesday night. The song goes "Thank you, I thank you, thank you for absolutely nothing." The song is one of the band's latest and seemingly their lead 'single' off their new album. A little mathy, a little dancey, some pop/rock and a lot of melody, the now based in Austin band  who are originally from Tallahassee, delivered a nice 45 minute. They mixed in songs from their new album To Bed to Battle (out on March 23) and previous releases. At one point singer Matt walked off stage to sit on the floor, amongst the crowd, and played guitar while the other members stayed on the stage, but were also sitting. It was great seeing the band in a basement, but not just any basement a really nice one at Webster Hall,with phenom sound, for the third time. I think this was their best one.

Also on the bill was Gabriel the Marine from Long Island, who had a pleasant violin-driven rock sound. They played songs off their Your Friends and Loved Ones EP, as well as new ones. Vocalist Dylan reminds me of Circa Survive's Anthony Green. On “Heaven Only Knows” the singer tried to sing really high but didn't quite make it there. The song itself it pretty sweet. The crowd cheered for one more, so they played a  quick new one that sounded awesome. There was a sweet bass line and the song was quite rockin'. A tad different from the main set GTM had played, which seems to be telling of the band's new music.

Following was Dear & the Departed who were added to the line-up last minute. Thankfully their was a gap between their tour with Alkaline Trio and Cursive, so they swung on by. The band was relatively unimpressive but had a few okay songs that were at the least head bopping worthy. Someone later noted that they sounded like an older, ripped off version of AFI. I wouldn't say it was punky AFI, but they had a straight-forward rock sound.