SOuLUTION

Best live show I've ever been at. The band is called Soulution and they killed. We sat down to them tuning up to a blues instrumental. The frontman, Casey Abay, had the most energy of any musician I've ever seen (he did a backflip off the bass drum out of nowhere! fucking eh!). He was completely wild and the band rocked the entire spectrum of good music. Unlike most cover bands, their original music was amazing too (I ended up buying their CD, which says a lot).

They covered everything from Michael Jackson to Johnny Cash to Tool to Hendrix, and everything in between. I'm a huge fan of covers when they're done right. A proper cover should have the band's spin on it instead of just mimicking the original work and these guys made every song their own. I pretty much lost my shit when they went from Billie Jean to Seven Nation Army. I love the White Stripes and this made my night. It was the most amazing transitions I have ever heard because they somehow made the perfect bridge between the two. Michael Jackson into the White Stripes? Who would've thunk it? They played a few of their own songs, which were crazy good, then did the best cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall that I have ever heard, and I've heard a lot of covers of Pink Floyd. The one thing that would have made the entire night legendary would have been a Queen cover but that's just me being a demanding prick. Casey reminded me of Freddie Mercury in terms of stage presence. Entertaining to say the very least but he had insane guitar skills and half the time I couldn't even see his arms he was playing so fast.

They had the biggest range out of any band I've ever heard, moving from blues to rock to country to blue grass to alternative to soul to reggae. They drew their influences from the cream of music. From hints of Allman Brothers to Guns and Roses to Zepplin, they had it all. Utterly insane. They're touring Hawaii for the next few weeks but said they were coming back to LA in May and I cannot wait. This little startup band may have just crept into my top 10 bands modern bands - yes, they were that good.

Words cannot express how insane this night was for music. Any of the three music events would have been killer alone but together, they hit every aspect and genre of music I love. This was the perfect way to spend my first night in West Hollywood and I could not be happier. This is a sign that everything's going to work out fine here. Renewed hope.

~Vince - Vincent Lui

Staying up for forty odd hours writing, reading scripts, and redesigning my writing website, I was faced with a dilemma tonight - get some much needed sleep... or go catch one of my favorite live bands for their last show in LA. Needless to say it wasn't a tough choice.

Soulution, the band that I raved about a while back, was stopping in LA again on their way back to Austin from their Hawaii tour. I found out about this on pretty short notice and everyone I knew in LA was either busy or had to wake up early tomorrow so I went alone to soak up the music, and I'm glad I did.

Once again, the amazing Nikke Angel and her Space Cadets opened up the night. Her voice sends chills down my spine and she did not disappoint, ending with a cover of Regina Spektor's Wasteside - a very good choice for her vocal abilities. Check out their site http://www.nikkiangelandthespacecadets.com (it has a unicorn in a spacesuit).

Soulution opened up with their brilliant cover of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and any remaining doubts on my sleep versus music decision flew out the door. Go to their MySpace page and listen to it: http://www.myspace.com/thesoulution. Definitely not even close to as impressive as their live version but it'll give you a feel for their sound. The more I listen to their original stuff the more I like it and I think I enjoyed this show even more than the last because I was more familiar with their songs. Through the night they flexed their amazing range again and covered everything from Hendrix (pulling off the opening rifts to Voodoo Chile was very impressive, kudos to the lead guitarist David Edery) to Black Sabbath (I'm pretty sure the lead vocalist Casey Abay can sing anything, just a feeling). Drummer Derek Hensley also ripped it knocking out a drum solo and bassist Kyle Hayes shined on everyone's favorite White Stripes song.

I really can't say enough good things about this band and hopefully they'll make it up to Vancouver one day, or at least to Seattle (they'll definitely be worth the trip) so all you people can check them out and know that I'm not exaggerating - it'll be one of the best live shows you'll see (yes, Josh, they're even better than the Dead Weather live). For those of you reading this that live in Texas (which is pretty much you, Ty), go check them out in Austin.

~Vince - Vincent Lui

Swollen gray clouds hunker low over downtown on the kind of slowly drizzling Saturday afternoon that can keep even the most ardent weekend warriors in bed. It’s the sort of weather that keeps those who work at night from even moving before the sun goes down behind an oatmeal haze. But the members of Soulution straggle dutifully into a dimly Chinatown pub for an interview. “I woke up like 10 minutes ago, man,” says frontman Casey Abay. They have only about an hour to talk before back-to-back gigs, first a private party in Kailua, then another night in the Waikiki music mill.

Soulution is a Los Angeles transplant band currently making its bones in the Honolulu gig circuit. The four members keep their sunglasses on and order a brace of Bloody Marys. Their voices are raspy like buckets of gravel. They’ve just come off of a gig streak that saw them play 18 shows in 17 days. Their mix of alt-pop and classic rock covers is perfectly catered to the crowds they’ve been winning over since their arrival in June. They’ve cultivated a devoted following of 20-something party people at a variety of live music venues, including Coconut Willy’s, Snapper’s, The Shack Waikiki, and their home base at Kelley O’Neil’s.

“Our goal was to be able to make a living just playing music,” says lead guitarist David Edery. “And that’s really hard to do in Los Angeles.” Born and raised in East Honolulu, Edery moved to SoCal for school in 2001. Edery, Abay and bassist Kyle Hayes met while undertaking the guitar studies program at the Musicians Insititute in L.A. after sharing several courses. Edery and Abay had been jamming together before approaching Hayes, over a Happy Meal at a Beverly Hills McDonald’s, about forming a band.

“It was like, ‘Hey, man, we’ve got a bottle of vodka back at the studio. You wanna come jam?’” remembers Abay, a diminutive, Philippines-born and Kansas-raised guy with a Fu Manchu beard. The enticement proved enough, and within four days Soulution had its first gig. Hayes saw Abay doing solo gigs at The Joint and was eager to work with him.

“The original stuff Casey was doing was interesting and accessible, so I was glad to start working with him,” says Hayes, whose first gig on bass was Soulution’s first show.

But competition among the countless bands in the City of Angels means that bands pay to play more often than not, saddled with hundreds of dollars worth of admission tickets they are responsible for whether or not the band can sell them. “It’s just not worth it to have to pay six hundred bucks to play a 45-minute set,” explains Edery. “It takes longer than that to set up and break down.”

The band is now able to focus exclusively on the music it makes. None of the members have day jobs, which means they are behooved to accept any and all gigs offered in order to pay the rent. They have honed their sound over months of constant playing, and their hodgepodge of cover songs ranges from Sublime to Santana, from The Animals to Led Zeppelin.

But Soulution also packs a canon of original music that slips seamlessly into their sets of crowd favorites like “Oye Como Va” and “The Joker.” Covers may pay the bills, but the members are eager to develop their own material and they take it seriously. “I write about life as it’s dealt to me,” says Abay. “It’s hard to manufacture inspiration, so you have to find it where you can.” Their song, “Another Road,” a crowd favorite, was written while Edery and Abay were stranded along the I-5 interstate in the California desert after a vehicle breakdown.

“We just picked up our guitars and started jamming on the side of the highway,” recalls Edery, mildly incredulous at the unlikely genesis of the song. “By the time AAA got there four hours later, the song was done.” Soulution’s songwriting process has become entirely organic, in that all of the members have input, and are welcome to bring in new song ideas.

Drummer Ric Lane joined up after answering a craigslist posting shortly after Soulution arrived in Honolulu. The Las Vegas transplant came to Honolulu with his Japanese-born wife, seeking a closer connection to Japanese culture without having to move out of the country. “Or to Los Angeles,” Lane laughs.

All of the members of Soulution are humble about what they do and grateful for the opportunity to be able to play music as a profession in paradise. They are thoughtful about their work, and their set lists are constructed to make the most out of the fact that people love to hear live music they are familiar with. They will often follow a string of crowd favorites with an original, and their audience seldom seems to notice. “It’s incredible to be able to play an original song for the first time and have people respond as though they already know it,” Abay says. - Honolulu Weekly

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/good_day/live_music/Live-Music%3A-Soulution-20100811-ktbcgd - FOX TV Network