‘Deleted Scenes’ rocks

Washington indie rock band Deleted Scenes rocked Mohawk Jan. 30 to a small yet pleased crowd.

Deleted Scenes recently released their sophomore album "Young People's Church of the Air," a followup to their first album entitled "Birdseed Shirt." The band is comprised of vocalist and guitarist Dan Scheuerman, bassist and keyboardist Matt Dowling, drummer Brian Hospital, and guitarist, keyboardist and disc jockey Dominic Campanaro.

The band formed in 2005 after Dowling and Scheuerman graduated college.

"We had talked about wanting to do something serious," Dowling said. "Dan had gotten some songs ready and that was kind of the basis of the band."

They spent their first year playing shows in the Washington area and it wasn't until 2007 that the band started their first national tour.

The name ‘Deleted Scenes' derived from Scheuerman's desire to write deeply emotional songs.

"I thought the name was appropriate for the type of songs I wanted to write," Scheuerman said. "They're very personal and not anything you would want to show people. Just like the parts of the movie that don't make it ... That don't fit the coherent, easily digestible view of life."

Deleted Scenes' influences include The Dismemberment Plan, Radiohead, The Beatles and Meshuggah, to name a few.

"We've gotten a lot of fair comparisons to Modest Mouse," Dowling said. "That's a band we loved when we started this band."

The group delivered a solid performance at the Jan. 30 Mohawk show. The crowd was meager, but that is not a reflection of the band's quality. When listening to the recordings, their songs can get a little repetitive. It's not until the band plays live that the emotions of the songs are truly felt. So much of their sentiments gets lost in the recordings.

As the band played each song, the crowd was drawn in further. By the end of the night people were letting the music move through them; they were dancing to the beats and enjoying everything that they heard. The audience came for a good show and Deleted Scenes did not disappoint.

As for the band's future, that remains up in the air.

"We just want to keep doing what we have done, which is keep trying to play good shows and keep writing," Dowling said. "And [to] try to write a record that's better than our last record."

Deleted Scenes is a talented band who knows how to deliver a good show. They will be back in Austin next month for SXSW and are a festival must-see.