Show: Middle Class Rut
Date: November 3, 2011
Venue: Music Box
City: Hollywood, CA
Middle Class Rut
Photo by Nicolas Bates
Written by Katie J. Norris
The set opens with a spotlight on guitarist/vocalist Zack Lopez as he strums an electric guitar with heavy reverb and power-belts the opening lyrics. Lights start to illuminate the rest of the stage as Sean Stockham comes in on the drums in the second verse. The band is at full sound when the lights reveal the entire stage and, to the surprise of those seeing MC Rut for the first time, there is only the two of them. Two musicians should not be able to effectively create an entire rock-band feel on a live stage without using pre-recorded technology, but they do. There’s enough bass chords used in the guitar and enough use of the three cymbals and high hat in the drum set to balance the treble and bass of the instrumentation. I think their secret is that the range for both instruments is used in full capacity as opposed to assigning each section to five different guys.
Zack Lopez is a frontman extraordinaire. He wears a slick button-down, solid black shirt, which makes him look even more commanding as he jams on the guitar with intense energy and holds down the lead vocals with forceful passion and veracity. He looks like he’s singing for the biggest band in the entire world, and as if he’s in front of a stadium of ten thousand fans. The drummer wears no shirt, not even to start off the set, and works the drums like he is a skilled martial artist; not to mention he sings as well. Each hit is incredibly precise, incredibly fast, and every beat is made as if with choreographed purpose. Both Zack and Sean’s physical appearance look too innocent for the hard-rock style they play, but they own it! They seem like they should be grizzly guys with lots of hair and tattoos, but they have a clean-cut, bad-boy image that is unique in itself.
MC Rut played a lot of their hits from some of their EP’s and their album, No Name No Color, including “Busy Bein’ Born,” “All Walks Of Life” and “I Guess You Could Say.” When they got to their biggest hit, “New Low,” they gave an even more theatrical performance (there was one handed drumming while singing and added impressive guitar solos). To be honest, as great as it was to watch the heavy rock n’ roll show, the intenseness of their songs started to actually feel a bit too much at one point, and I found myself silently pleading for a ballad of some sort to give the bashing a breather. I think they somehow read my mind, as the next song, they switched it up and played “Are You On Your Way,” a slower song that got everyone singing, “Are you on your way…are you coming home?” These two are incredibly tight on their song starts and stops. They do use a healthy amount of reverb on both mics, but only being a duo, it actually really helps to give a more full sound; one they accomplish with everything else. The closed the show with their hit “USA,” and had the crowd jumping up and down with them—a clear sign of a great show.