[VIDEO PREMIERE] Big Paraid – “Walk In Place”

[VIDEO PREMIERE] Big Paraid – “Walk In Place”

[VIDEO PREMIERE] Big Paraid – “Walk In Place”

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Big Paraid Walk in Place video premiere

The kind of buzz around local well-kept secret Big Paraid is usually reserved for world-famous supergroups or star-studded vanity projects. The music itself certainly calls for it, as the trio’s debut EP is as menacing, sleazy and altogether potent as any release of their ilk, but what’s also getting area tastemakers anxious is that Big Paraid have yet to play a single note in front of a live audience.

Well, at least as Big Paraid. Back in Peoria, Joe Shadid and Evan Hand began playing music together all the way back in the 5th grade. Hand recalls, “Our 6th grade teacher eventually let us bring our electric guitars in on Fridays, and we got to rock out for the entire uniformed class during the last hour of the day.” Later, Shadid and Hand began booking acoustic gigs in bars around Peoria – sometimes five separate shows in one weekend. Two years later, they formed Waterstreet with drummer Rob Gould, and for approximately seven years, they’ve torn up stages around the Midwest, as well as Memphis, New York and Los Angeles.

2013 brings a new musical arena for Shadid, Hand and Gould, as Waterstreet’s classic-rock riffs are exchanged for Big Paraid’s dirty, sultry garage attack. The jittery “Walk In Place” opens the group’s self-titled EP with far more blood-pumping warmth than you’ve come to expect from the genre, with genuine nods to The Kinks littered throughout. “Kill the Killer” rides high on a frantic falsetto, lightning-quick fret work and Gould’s massive backbeat, while the hypnotic mid-tempo shimmy of “Black and White Wildlife” and “You Should Move to New York” are prime rib for college radio. Big Paraid’s vocals are distorted just enough to allow some mystery to seep in, but the songs never keep the listener at a distance. These songs are expertly crafted, as closing jam “Innocence Comes and Goes When You’re Alone” shows: If it’s possible for an electric guitar to sound drunk, that’s what we have here, to towering effect. It may be the EP’s best track, saving its slithery grime and hummable pop sensibility for the end.

 

 

Big Paraid will make their live debut with a release show at Double Door at the end of March. Details below:

SAT 3/30 @ Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee (Chicago, IL)
Bam Presents…
Big Paraid w/ special guest DJ Orville Kline
$10 advance / $12 door / Doors: 9pm / 21+

Big Paraid website
Big Paraid on Facebook

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Kris Hi there! Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Sights and Sounds. Been doing this music writing thing for most my life in one way or another and loving every opportunity it's brought along. Shoot me an email if you have any suggestions for the website, comments, or if you just want to chat. Cheers!