[live recap] Helicopria rises @ Church

Three vibrant Boston bands emerged Thursday night at Church during the release party for the HELICOPRIA, a developing prog-rock band formed at Berklee that last week dropped their self-titled debut album. The audience, the bands, the sound, and the spirit, were all young -- most of the crowd looked college-aged. Their age and novice gave off a purity rarely found at larger-scale rock concerts these days; the vibe was one of pure dedication and excitement of a band and their fans starting out on a journey together.

This Church crowd arrived at the start and stayed until the end. SUPERVOLCANO served as a good warm-up act, bringing impressive energy to the stage, headbanging and dancing with the mic stand; although the audience only absorbed a fraction of that energy so early in the night. After warming up their concert muscles with head nods and swaying, the crowd was ready to jump for BEAR LANGUAGE. The trio had electric chemistry with the audience, interacting with the crowd like they owned the stage. A funk breakdown before their final song showed off their talent, and was a nice contrast to the boyish rock of the rest of their set.

Helicopria was the clear fan favorite, however, and for good reason. Cheers exploded from the crowd the moment they stepped on-stage -- not even to perform, but to merely set up. Once they launched in to their set, amped up by the evening’s album release party designation, Helicopria played an aggressive set of Evanescence-esque dark rock. Though they struggled a bit with the sound setup during the performance, the audience never lost interest. From the single “Disco Chase” to their take on a ballad, “The Alter Ego,” Helicopria were versatile, but strong in their distinct sound.

The night showed promise for each of the bands on the bill, young acts with desire to just play, not yet jaded by the dying music industry and not selling their music to make money. Devoted Helicopria fans even dressed the part, donning “Helicopria School of Sharks” t-shirts. They have a few weeks to get them in the wash and do it all over again -- Helicopria return to Church on Oct. 19.

In the meantime, their self-titled album is available for free download at the Helicopria Bandcamp page.