Shippensburg’s music and art’s venue The Thought Lot played host to four local bands Friday, Sept. 14.

The Black Black Beasts, Bratcore, The Young and the Restless, and Blayer Point Dujour & The Rockers Galore all played half-hour long sets.

The best show of the night was the first as Black Black Beast’s guitar based instrumentals were played with poise and energy.
The five-piece Chambersburg- based band sounded like a slightly darker Explosians in the Sky for most of their set.

A lot of their tracks were driven by guitars and bass, but they also experimented with a bit of electronic rock, including a freaky sample from the X Files to close out their show.

These guys were very unorthodox, at one point playing a guitar with the bow of a violin and are well worth a listen.

Next up was the two-piece Shippensburg band Bratcore. Featuring a drummer and guitar-playing vocalist these guys played a lot of pyschodelic stuff. Their songs were filled with echo effects and trippy vocals that sounded more like cadences than words and had most of the roughly 50 fans in attendance on their feet.

They gave way to the Young and the Restless, a Carlisle band, whose blend of punk, alternative rock and a bit of screamo sounded vaguely like a heavier Manchester Orchestra.

The instrumentals were great, but were occasionally at odds with the vocals. The band’s last track, an ode to the front man’s grandmother was powerful and by far the best of their set.

The Philladelphia based Blayer Point Dujour & The Rockers Galore closed things out with their Reggae Jam style. The band brought a lot of energy and interacted well with fans, giving away as many copies of their new CD, The Bull, as they could.

After the show fans milled around for a while taking in the sights at the venue. Abstract Hatian art hanging from its walls, plenty of comfy couches, good music and a laidback attitude made the real showstopper of the night was the Thought Lot. Even the artists were impressed.

“This really is a wicked venue,” said the Black Black Beasts’ bassist Bryan Mcdermott during the band’s show. “Make sure to support local places like this and help keep them going.”

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