Black Room Lights Up Viper

Coming at things from a decidedly darker perspective is Norwegian act Black Room, who quickly enchant the Viper Room audience with material from their debut disc, Pop Noir--a most fitting appellation, nicely summing up the sound of Black Room in but a pair of words. Muscular guitar work is ably abetted by some soaring synth sounds and the vivid vocal theatrics of singer Ole, backed by a rock-solid rhythm that had a packed house moving in time and bobbing heads in unison. You could call their sound Kasabian on steroids, if you were an especially lazy aficionado of indie rock and the American national pasttime...but miserable musical metaphors aside, there is one definitive way to refer to Black Room: awesome.