Second Story Garage: Strange Americans

Strange Americans perform “Blood is Gold” at Second Story Garage in Boulder, Colorado.

It’s refreshing when bands don’t have to tie themselves in knots when describing their music. Strange Americans play rock ‘n’ roll. That’s what they say and that’s who they are, and that’s what they did when they played the garage.

The Denver quintet — it includes Matt Hoffman and Trent Nelson on guitar, Murray Mercier on keyboards, Trevor Sinnard on bass and Michael McKee on drums — made its debut with the 2012 release A Royal Battle. They celebrated the release of the followup, That Kind of Luster, last month with a show at Bluebird Theater in Denver.

We wanted to hear what the band’s new material sounded like, and they satisfied our rock ‘n’ roll cravings with the songs “Blood is Gold,” “Aggro” and “The Scene.” Then they talked with Quentin about what’s up.

What they brought us: An American flag. It seems pretty standard, not strange.

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