A lot of bands try and have some ground breaking existential title for their albums. Well whatever your view on life is River City High has one of the most accurate album titles ever, Not Enough Saturday Nights. First off, don't knock these guys immediately for their name; they are not a band full of guys wearing girl's jeans and copious amounts of make-up. In fact, all assumptions aside let's get to the music. For those of you old enough to attend the bar scene, this is the kind of music that is supposed to be in bars. If bars aren't your deal then this is one of those records to blast on your night of ritualistic drinking (that would be Thursday-Sunday for college kids). River City High reach back into the 70's, 80's, and 90's and bring back some killer riffs and rocking songs that were meant to be enjoyed by large jubilant gatherings of people.
That's not to say that you can only enjoy this album while being completely hammered though. A lot of songs remind me of Lit's "A Place in the Sun". While the bands sound nothing alike, both albums are well written grooving rock records that are perfect to throw on when you chill out. As I perused the album as well I was very surprised to not find a single ballad, which is often the gift or curse of an album. If you write better acoustic songs you'll go the way of Staind, and nothing is worse than listening to a block of hard hitting and high energy songs to suddenly be dropped into a ballad and never brought back. The only song remotely close to a ballad is "This Time's the Last Time", which is a song that you would hear being sung by a crowd of drunk people.
As far as the album as a whole, every track adds a perfect mix of drunken swagger and ballsy rock. However I still have trouble with the album opener "Dogwood Queen." I don't know what it is, but the song just sounds off to me, which is an unfortunate place to start an album. Thankfully things pick up with the second track "Bastard" and continue rocking till the end. Each song blends the perfect mix of wailing vocals, vicious guitars, and thundering drums. Another high point is that most of the songs feature some form of a guitar solo.
While most bands who try this have each solo sound very stagnant, River City High make each one stand out in their respective songs. The vocals are right on in every song and you constantly feel like singing out, playing air guitar, or drumming on the table to the album. Some definite high points are the tracks "Run, Run, Run", "We Want the Radio", "A Better Day", and "Makes No Difference". If you are in the need of some good upbeat drinking music definitely check out Not Enough Saturday Nights and make each night a kick ass Saturday night full of debauchery and load rock music.
