Young Buffalo and others play at the Bishop

To an intimate crowd at The Bishop Bar, three bands from different places came together to form a multifaceted show, mixing hard indie rock with melodic, acoustic sounds.

Starting out the night was Swales, a Bloomington-based band named after narrow ditches that redirect heavy water and rains.

Peter Oren, vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Swales, a five-man ensemble, said the band really got its start last summer after he and band mate Edward Joyner took a permaculture course offered by Indiana University.

The band’s songs were politically and socially charged, including lyrics like “if you think it’s hot here, try hell.”

“That’s one of the first songs I can remember writing,” Oren said. “We saw that phrase on a church sign outside one hot summer in Southern Indiana and I brought the song out to have the other guys help write it and we incorporated that into the song.”
Following Swales was Blessed Feathers, a duo from Milwaukee, Wisc.

Blessed Feathers is a collaboration between Milwaukee native Jacquelyn Beaupré and Donivan Berube, a Florida-raised musician with roots in Quebec.

The duo met at a restaurant where they both worked in West Bend, Wisc., and soon after began writing and performing together.

The duo’s first show was at a bookstore in West Bend in April 2010.

Blessed Feathers poses Beaupre’s delicate banjo melodies against Berube’s driving guitar to create an earthy, rich sound. The two interacted very closely on stage, sharing glances during each song to further develop each song’s individual meaning.
“We are engaged, we live together, we play together, we spend all of our time in a tiny car together, so it really helps us when we play,” Beaupre and Berube said. “We just play off each other so easily on stage.”

To end the night, Mississippi band Young Buffalo shook up the room with their big sound, with guitar melodies reminiscent of The Cure and vocals with similar tones to Vampire Weekend.

Guitarist and bassist Ben Yarbrough said the band really listens to 80’s pop and rock music for inspiration,  but doesn’t really relate itself to one genre.
“We’ve been told we sound like Vampire Weekend before, but I like The Cure a lot more,” Yarbrough said.

The band’s self-titled EP was released in October 2012 and was a precursor to their new album, planned for release next year.

“Since we signed with Votive in Seattle we’ve written about 25 songs,” Yarbrough said. “We’re just trying to get in as much as we can so when it comes time to make the album we can pick and choose.”

While Blessed Feathers and Young Buffalo brought contrasting sounds to the venue last night, they set off together to their next stop in Columbus, Ohio for their next stop on tour.