Chad Urmston, the front man for State Radio, took the stage Saturday night like a disheveled demagogue trying to lead the audience to some sort of revolution.
The sold-out, 650-person crowd at Lulu's Nightspot, 129 1/2 S. Pugh St., seemed willing to join him.
The band's politically heavy, anti-corrupt-government lyrical content and infectious energy was nothing short of inciting. It's an odd complement to Urmston's Bob Marley-esque peace-promoting style, but it was somehow fitting.
The band's set can be compared to a mixture of Rage Against the Machine's governmental-loathing and Marley's optimistic reggae -- with some punk riffs thrown in between. Urmston, a former vocalist and guitarist of the now defunct Dispatch, has taken his melodic, urgent observations and storytelling to a whole new level with State Radio.
The band began with "Fall of the American Empire." The crowd started singing along right away, crooning the dramatic lines: "It's the fall of the American empire / but don't you worry honey, you didn't miss a thing."
This set the tone for the remainder of the evening, with the sing-a-long turning into a shout-a-long at times as energy built. Urmston knew exactly how to work the crowd.
State Radio's music consists of soaring vocals and sometimes violent guitar strums that melt into somber laments, only to abruptly turn right back into burning refrains. The patterns of energy shifts were reason enough for the audience to jump around and dance.
Urmston's protests ranged from the war in Iraq (he tells the story of a military sergeant jailed for not wanting to return to Iraq in the song "Camilo") to the genocide in Sudan. In between the wide range of objections were tales of life and perseverance, most apparent in the song "Right Me Up."
The venue was entirely packed with the crowd standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Crowd-surfing attempts were actually somewhat successful until the bouncers tore people down.
The band Abigail Warchild opened for State Radio and sounded like a grungier version of Franz Ferdinand, with a Stone Temple Pilots vibe at times. They seemed grateful just to be playing to such a crammed audience.
Their guitarist had the sweetest crowd surf of all of the attempts, too, taking his guitar with him as he dove off stage.
"Hey, sorry to whoever I hit in the face with my guitar -- I owe you a beer," the guitarist said once he returned to stage, trying to make amends.
When State Radio left the stage, unified "one more song!" chants brought them back to sing another track. When they left again and the Nightspot's ultra-bright room lights came up, it seemed like the show was over, but a second encore brought them back on for a final display of energy, singing the anthem "The Diner Song" under the fluorescent lights.
