1/26/07, 5:20 pm EST

Assignment Three Finalist: Timothy Anderl on Southeast Engine (Dayton, Ohio)

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Note: This is not an official Rolling Stone article. What follows is a submission to the “I’m From Rolling Stone” writing competition.

SOUTHEAST ENGINE - 1/12/07

by Timothy Anderl
Age: 30

Pyrotechnics, guitar smashing and tight pants can often leave an enthralled audience remembering what it was they saw rather than what they heard. When Southeast Engine came to Dayton’s The Nite Owl on January 12 they were content to let only their music steal the show. This isn’t surprising considering the band hails from Athens, an understated, sleepy Appalachian town in the southeast shadow of Columbus, a city that hosts a college where burning cars and throwing bottles at cops is an appropriate celebration for a football win.

Members of the band modestly humped their own gear from the parking lot to the stage of the unremarkable watering hole whose closest neighbors are adult bookstores and second hand shops. Following a soft-spoken greeting singer/guitarist/harmonica player Adam Remnant, he led the quartet in a set of modern Americana songs that are seamlessly framed with introspective lyrics (the existence of God, alcoholism, the after-life). The crowd, largely comprised of the bands’ collegiate and indie rock-styled friends and the bands’ middle-aged parents, responded most enthusiastically to boozy barn burner “Fool’s Dilemma” and the woozy orchestration of the slower “Coming To Terms With Gravity.”

When someone from the crowd requested a song from rhythm guitarist Adam Torres’ freak folk solo project, the band graciously agreed. While Torres’ staccato tenor and the band’s psychedelic meanderings provided a contrast to the evening’s earlier offerings, the song’s cacophonous conclusion provided the perfect closing chapter to an unflinching set.

Though the band could have easily phoned in this evening’s show as a lackluster rehearsal for the following night’s gig – a highly anticipated CD release party for another band who is championed by local press — Southeast Engine delivered a much more captivating and memorable show than you’d get from a group who pours themselves into immodest outerwear, or who are exercising a budget and appetite for destruction rather than showcasing their solid chops.