Steel Train conjures baggy-jean youths of Generation Y. They tag buildings and take the girl next door on midnight rides for beer and cigarettes. Rebelliousness propels their music, but there is an undercurrent of emotion that gives them depth and soul.
The music takes curves at 90 mph then slows down to wink at a pretty girl. Sometimes bouncy, sometimes intense, their guitar rhythms have the capriciousness of a teenager’s mood swings. One minute they are dark and brooding. The next, snappy and bright. The seriousness of their songs’ topics are prone to shift too, and while many of their songs hone in on mundane sources of angst, others course deeper: "I Feel Weird", for example, ruminates on an adolescence prematurely shocked out of them when the Twin Towers fell. But even as they lose some innocence, they do not completely lose their youth; Steel Train’s lyrics may roll toward adulthood, but they deliver them with vocals that sound too optimistic to be there yet.
Regress with Steel Train at the Middle East Downstairs July 23 at 7:30 PM.