Panda Storm Slim's

I bet you're scratching your heads at the title- "Since when were pandas belligerent animals?"; "Since when were bands that named themselves Panda were supposed to storm anywhere?". While both of your questions aren't unfounded, they were definitely answered on Saturday (Feb. 23), when a group of high schoolers played the San Francisco equivalent of CBGB before they even graduated.

The music venue in question, Slim's, was significantly packed as a result of the efforts of not just Panda, but a few other local bands (one of which definitely committing a rock faux pas with a keytar player), but none of them really managed to hit the sweet spot of a good rock show as much as the bear-monikered quintet. The essence of the show they put on was not based either too much in kitsch or in melodrama- two qualities, whether transmitted over the airwaves on the radio or on TV, that are in no short supply these days. Admittedly, they're probably going to have to think of some other onstage fx besides a smoke machine if that contract from Capitol comes their way, but this type of thing should be the least of worries for a band with any integrity left, such as our present subjects.

Obviously, as they could still be labeled a garage band in the most literal sense, the boys in Panda (Johnny Flanes- guitar/vocals, Petros Anastos-Prastacos- guitar/vocals, Garret Leidy- bass, Louie Diller- drums, Joey Orton- keyboard) did not take playing a place like Slim's very lightly. The excitement in guitarist and singer Petros Anastos-Prastacos's eyes was palpable as he exchanged some last words with bassist Garret Leidy before their set kicked off. But once these guys gave the music a greenlight, they played like Slim's (again, the San Francisco equivalent of CBGB) was no big deal. Subsequently, from the first notes of their breezy song "Chinatown" to their swing-meets-Zeppelin roller coaster "Carry On", they simply owned the whole building.

Shortly after their set ended, I got a chance to catch up and interview the band's drummer, Louie Diller, who managed to remain articulate despite the marathon he had just been through onstage:
(Q): The first thing I noticed when hearing about you guys is that your name seems like it has nothing to prove. Why did you name yourselves Panda?
Louie Diller: We had been practicing for about a couple of months, and we knew that we were gonna have to come up with something if we wanted to get any gigs, so we just randomly flipped open a page of the dictionary and "Panda" was the word we came to.
(Q): I don't think there's any label, besides something as basic as "rock", that could be applied to the stylistic breadth of your music. What are your main influences?
LD: I'd say The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Mars Volta, Radiohead, and Muse.
(Q): There definitely seems to be a swing influence in the groove of some of your songs as well- especially "Carry On" and "Fake Tattoos". Where does that come from?
LD: Well, yeah- there is definitely a swing-type thing going on in those songs. A fair amount of it has to do with the fact that I joined the band, I'd been taking drum lessons specifically on jazz rhythm and theory, so that ended up rubbing off during the songwriting process for some of our songs.
(Q): Speaking of which, how do you guys come up with your material in the first place?
LD: We usually have, like, one person who comes up with a main melody or chord change- recently, it's been Petros, but before it's been others in the band as well-and who ever comes up with the main riff just shows it to us and then we all work on it from there. The majority of the time it's taken to write any of our songs has involved collaboration between everybody in the band.
(Q): Well, since Festival Preview is a site that mainly covers music festivals, I have to ask: Has Panda played any festivals?
LD: We haven't played any real big festivals yet, but we're gonna play at South By Southwest, and we're really looking forward to that, of course.
(Q): Obviously then, you guys must have come a fair ways since starting up. What two shows were your favorite and least favorite since being in the band?
LD: Well, I know right off which the worst one was- one of our first gigs as a band was at this talent show in our town, unsurprisingly, and I'll just say that it didn't go that well. The best one, though, was probably when we played down at UC Santa Cruz (an school in the University of California system). That gig was pretty tight.
(Q): I have to say, I was floored by the show you guys put on tonight. What would you say is the effect that you guys try to give or send out to the audience most in a performance?
LD: Well, thanks. As for the question, I know it's kind of cliche, but we want to sort of take the audience on a trip with our performances. We like to start off with some straightforward stuff, like we did with "Chinatown" tonight, then we try to play songs that are a bit more relaxed, like "Fake Tattoos" and then sort of come back with something stronger than what we started with, like "Carry On". So, in general, we want people who come to our shows to feel like they've been through some really powerful experience.
Most of the writing you will read on FP honestly won't have as much praise lauded on a single band as that which you have just observed. Also, if we report on multi-band shows, you'll usually find each band will get its fair share of coverage. However, in the spirit of supporting local bands (except the ones that suck), I must continue to deviate from the conventions of music criticism and command all FP readers to get online and steal Panda's music now!! Don't feel guilty about the pirating part- they'll be very grateful.

-- Ross Moody
(Photo: One of the non-musical feats in Panda's repetoire)