Words From A Fan

I can't believe people even ask why I never miss a Sunfall Festival show. Or why I'm often seen stepping on toes, and tripping over my own, to get a pristine recording. So I turn the tables and ask why anybody would not bend over backwards to see them?

People always want comparisons. I suppose I can acknowledge that Sunfall is smooth like the Sundays, but coarse and at times enigmatic a la Throwing Muses. They could be called a more dynamic Boo Radleys, but with the Sugarcubes' energy. Compare away, but you'll end up missing the point.

Never mind the band is on the brink of rock stardom, selling thousands of CDs to adoring fans around the globe, receiving praise in the media, and continually turning heads throughout the music industry.

And sure, the breezy melancholy of "I Walked Away" did win them first place among 30,000 artists at garageband.com (rest its soul), nabbing a half-million votes from music fans worldwide — a kind of cyber gold record. This cements the notion that Sunfall Festival's emotive pop has serious mass appeal.

Granted, the band has been courted by top producers and labels, including superproducer Paul Fox (Bjork, 10,000 Maniacs, Grant Lee Buffalo, XTC, Phish), who joined the band in early 2002 in their Provo, Utah headquarters to work on their newest songs.

Forget all that and remember this: "It's the music." Sunfall Festival is a band, in the purest sense. Seven years, five albums, and hundreds of live shows bring an uncommon cohesiveness that dominates every performance. Sunfall Festival lures you in, hook after hook, then unloads an intense emotional burst that leaves any listener wide eyed.

It's the versatility of the band, and lead singer Amy Gileadi, which ultimately pulls it all together. The intense, emotional ravings of Gileadi's abrasive alter ego cement the onstage presence that I predict will hypnotize the world.

If they're still unconvinced by this point, I have no choice but to put things into their proper perspective: I ask, "If you were in Manchester in the early 80s and were able to follow the Smiths (or REM in Athens or the Pixies in Boston or U2 in Dublin) would you have ever stayed home?" Then they usually understand.