Shaimus at Stanford
I got an email from Chrissy earlier this week inviting me to a small gig that a band she knows (ie, she knows the lead singer as a friend-of-a-friend) would be playing at Stanford on Friday. I had never heard of the band before — Shaimus — but they would be playing just a stone’s throw away from my Stanford apartment and it would be a fun way to end this busy week. It also turns out that an early Shaimus song is on Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the video games.
Shaimus rocks out at Stanford University
And boy am I glad I went! The graduate student council brought the (free) beer, and Shaimus brought the rock. The music was great and the band performed admirably playing to a bunch of grad students in a hall where yoga lessons are usually held. During the mid-show break, we spoke to the guitarist and he said that some of the band members knew Harmonix, the makers of Guitar Hero, back when they were in Boston and heard about the call for local indie acts to include in the game. They submitted a song they had recently finished, and it was included in the game. Shaimus isn’t signed to a record label yet, but they have a publisher to get their stuff featured in various medium. Genre is indie alt rock, and I’m not sure if it was just the result of seeing them perform up close in a small room, but honestly they sounded better and more polished than more semi-famous acts I’ve seen featured on late night shows.
They played up the crowd too, with the guitarist shouting “#@% the Bears!” and “Toby for Heisman!”, and then some of the students even started a mosh pit (not sure it was really warranted though…) near the end. They came back for one more song, doing a cover of the Beatles’ “Something” by George Harrison that got the whole room singing along to.
I picked up their two CDs to show my support, and a big tip of the hat to Chrissy for the heads up on this fun show.
Shaimus Said,
December 6, 2009 @ 11:23 pm
Hi Saket – Thanks for listening and we really appreciate this write-up about the show. Awesome picture too :)
Hope you’re enjoying those records!
Shaimus
Saket Vora » Dinner with Hersh, impromptu Shaimus show Said,
February 22, 2011 @ 8:32 am
[...] Thursday, Chrissy mentioned that Shaimus, the band whose show at Stanford she had us go to last year, was playing at Kimo’s in SF that night. I decided to tag along, [...]