Bleeding Rainbow plays The Bishop, deals with name change

The Bishop Bar's playboard read "Bleeding Rainbow" Saturday night, because about a year ago Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein decided she didn’t like the band's original name - Reading Rainbow.

As the Philadelphia-based band was already living in fear of a cease and desist letter from PBS, the four-some decided to switch "reading" to "bleeding."

“Probably the best name of all time was already taken,” Bleeding Rainbow's front girl Sarah Everton said. “That being Sonic Youth, and I’m not saying that just because they’re awesome."

The band agreed that it wasn’t a hard decision and in a post on their website they termed Bleeding Rainbow “trippy.”

Thus, vocalist/guitarist Rob Garcia said they’re sticking with it for that reason and for the fact a mere name shouldn’t matter as much as the sound.

But to some, that was like saying "it’s what’s on the inside that counts," and they subsequently disagreed.

This included Pitchfork reviewer Stephen Hyden who, in his review of Bleeding Rainbow's latest album "Yeah Right," claimed the name switch signified the change from “twee” and “cutesy” to a darker “shoe gaze-infused pop” sound where they were attempting to be cool.

The band came back with a public response that basically tagged the review as condescending.

As far as the name change goes, Everton said the timing was more coincidental than planned and lead guitarist Al Creedon just said it marked a general time of transition.

“We just took too long to do the album because we were still trying to find out who we were,” Creedon said.This seemed true.

Over a short span of time Everton moved from drums to bass to highlight her vocals, they signed Greg Frantz to drums and added Creedon to guitar with Garcia, just before dropping Frantz altogether and picking up Dominique Montgomery.

“But now we’re hyper prepared,” Creedon said. “We know what we want."

With a new confidence that might have been spurred by this recent tour, fans can expect a new album no later than the beginning of next year.

But before the band could get home to start working, they had to finish their tour — their last stop, Bloomington.

Garcia thanked The Bishop Bar's sound guy saying it all sounded good from the stage with a response that sometimes the high frequency needed bodies to pull it off.

It was true, there were about a handful of 10 summer attendees that showed,  including one man who resorted to covering his ears from the increasing volume of the set.

But no one seemed to mind as much as two guys vividly danced along to the music - one flapping his arms as if a bird and the other mimicking Creedon’s vertical playing.

Another man said he had never heard of Bleeding Rainbow before, but danced with his boyfriend nonetheless and even bought a record at the end of the short-lived set.