Location, Location, Location

November 21, 2009 at 11:53 pm | In Funhouse, Gigs, Seattle | Leave a Comment
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Real Estate at the Funhouse, Seattle | 18 November 2009

New Jersey band Real Estate, the latest Pitchfork lottery winners, garnering a well deserved best new music ribbon on their debut self-titled album that came out this week on Woodsist were in town on Wednesday night for their debut Seattle gig. The record is often described as conjuring a surf, beach, and bonfires at sunset king of vibe.  It’s not a Beach Boys, southern California vibe, but a down under, New Zealand kink of vibe.  Think the Clean (yes, them again) and you’re half way there.  Throw in a little Byrds, Grateful Dead and Durutti Column and you’re nearly there.

It was a rainy night in Seattle, what night isn’t this time of year, but the sun was setting and the waves were crashing inside the Funhouse. Real Estate are four unassuming guys that look like they could have been a band in the college rock heyday of the 80’s.  Looking at them, they reminded me of bands like Game Theory, Galaxy 500, and Dumptruck who all had a look where if you saw them on the street you would’ve had no idea of their ability to plaster a sunset on the wall with their guitars.  Live, Real Estate don’t really have the same watery effects on their guitars that they do on record, but the interplay between singer Martin Courtney in his thrift shop cardigan and Mathew Mondanile (also of Ducktails) sporting a big ol’ anorak was every bit as effective and engaging.  Bolstered by the grooving Alex Bleeker (also of Alex Bleeker and the Freaks) on bass, and the best sound I’ve ever witnessed at the Funhouse the band created a hazy mellow good-time vibe the almost made me forget that I live in Seattle and it’s November.  Please come back soon.

mp3: Real Estate – Beach Comber (from their self titled debut, buy it from Woodsist)


mp3: Real Estate – Old Folks (from their OOP 7 inch single on Underwater Peoples)


Here’s some video I shot of the last song of their set, Beach Comber.

Back In Denim

November 19, 2009 at 11:42 pm | In Gigs, Music, Neumo's, Seattle | 3 Comments
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Girls at Neumo’s, Seattle | 17 November 2009

“We’re back, back in denim”,  Girls (SF) front guy Christopher Owens told the audience at Neumo’s after being asked how he like Seattle.  He was referring to the fact that they were here earlier this year at the Capitol Hill Block Party, but he was also referencing Lawrence Hayward’s post Felt band Denim.  Listening to Girls’ debut Album I had this inkling that they were Felt and Denim fans.  A lot of the guitars have a spindly feel to them that reminds me of late period Felt, but really it was just a hunch.  American bands liking felt is nothing new, the Tyde come to immediate mind and a couple songs on the new Pants Yell! have a similar thing going on.  I digress, back to Girls’ Felt affectation. On hearing Owens utter the title to Lawrence’s first post-Felt album was pretty much all I needed to confirm my suspicions.

Don’t get the wrong idea.  It’s not all Felt, Denim (and Go-Kart Mozart) with Girls, the album has this watery, twangy, rockabilly sound to it that gives me this hallucination of Roy Orbison and Duane Eddy playing Santo & Johnny’s Sleepwalking in some underwater dive bar. The album also has the huge shoegaze bliss-out of Morning Light and the obvious Beach Boys/Jan & Dean reference in their song Big Bad Mean Motherfucker, and don’t forget Owens singing sounds a little like Elvis Costello.  I’m into all of the above and have been loving this record for past few months, but the overall aesthetic of the record has this Felt/Denim feel to it that seems to transcend all the other influences that color the album.

I am certainly not alone in liking the record.  Girls seem to get tons of glowing reviews for their album, but live they don’t seem to light people up.  Actually, I don’t think I’ve read anywhere that said Girls are amazing live.  I can’t really say that they were amazing, but they were really good.  Most of their songs don’t really make you want to dance, they’re mellow dark affairs that revel in the kind of atmosphere they can create and live that is what they did.  Songs like Solitude and Ghost Mouth were prime of examples of that gloomy outlook set to ethereal atmospherics.  The heart of their set cranked up the energy level a noticeable amount with the trio of songs Lust for Life, Hellhole Ratrace and Morning Light getting everybody going.  Owens seemed to be feeling it too, at times crouching down with his guitar in an almost Chuck Berry pose during some of the big guitar parts.  I especially liked how the noise freak-out they did at the end of Hellhole Ratrace overlapped seamlessly with the shoegaze miasma of Morning Light.  The rest of the set, the band settled back into a few more moody, but no less compelling songs.  For an encore Owens came back out with his acoustic guitar, donned a gold trimmed baseball hat from someone in the audience and did few songs solo, one of which he called Broken Dreams Club which you can download from Living Ears along with a few other acoustic songs they did for radio station KDHX.

Something that may also be of interest to those who think I’m off my rocker with the Felt and Denim references, the French website MagicRPM has a three part conversation between Girls’ Christopher Owens and Chet “JR” White with Lawrence of Felt/Denim/Go-Kart Mozart. Dig Lawrence’s baseball cap with tinted blue visor.

mp3: Girls – Lust for Life (not the Iggy Pop song from Album, buy it here)


mp3: Girls – Broken Dreams Club (from KDHX session)


Sunshine or Headlights

November 9, 2009 at 11:23 pm | In Gigs, Seattle, Sunset Tavern | 1 Comment
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Headlights at the Sunset Tavern, Seattle | 8 November 2009

headlights at the sunset tavern

Headlights third album Wildlife, which came out on Polyvinyl last month, is something of a departure from this Champaign, Illinois band’s previous records. For starters it’s a much more confident, relaxed, prettier and not as straightforward as the previous two records. I kind of like the fact that it’s not so obvious.  That’s not to say it doesn’t have pop songs on it, it’s just that the band seems to present them from odd perspectives. One moment embracing Chicago-style post-rock, the next they’re going for the orchestral pop jugular, and then sneaking in some fancy ethereal guitar pop effects.

That’s a lot of stuff to pack in a van and head out on the road with, but Headlights brought all of that and more to the Sunset Tavern in Ballard last night. Besides the harmonies of keyboardist Erin Fein and guitarist Tristan Wraight there was the amazing rhythm section of drummer Brett Sanderson and Nick Sanborn. Watching Sanderson own the drums was easily the highlight of the set and something I hadn’t noticed listing to their records. His drumming had this trashcan staccato sound to it that reminded me of Stephen Morris of New Order, back when he actually played drums.  The Sanderson-Sanborn rhythm section seemed to be mentally joined at the hip and their fluent playing drove the songs into a more immediate and intense directions, but didn’t overpower Fein and Wraight’s bright singing.  Now that winter has decided to set in with its dark skies, rain and general gloom I know I depend more and more on bands being able to bring that summer rush of sunshine back into my life. Sunday night the Headlights did exactly that. An hour long sun-break that provided enough vitamin D to get me through the week.

mp3: Headlights – Get Going (from Wildlife, buy it from Polyvinly)

Freaks & Geeks & Punks

October 31, 2009 at 11:07 pm | In Funhouse, Gigs, Seattle | Leave a Comment
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Tyvek at the Funhouse | 30 October 2009

Freaks & Geeks

Are Tyvek punks, geeks, or moonlighting construction workers?  They’re most certainly the first two.  Frontman Kevin Boyer is a dead ringer for Bill Haverchuck but he can rock it like Nick Andopolis, and they could very well be the third for all I know. Maybe that’s why Boyer was the only Tyvek guy I recognized from the group that recorded the excellent self-titled album released on Siltbreeze earlier this year. The rest of the band could be back in Detroit unable to get away from their jobs for this west coast tour.  Tyvek last night at the Funhouse were a band that at times acted like this was the first time they’d ever actually played a gig together.  That’s probably because it was close to the case.  Not sure what’s up with the original line-up, or if this is the west coast version of Tyvek.   At one point the second guitarist’s chord to his amp came unplugged from his guitar, but he didn’t seem to notice and kept playing, luckily Chris from the opening band Sandy City noticed and plugged it back in for him.    A few songs later it took the drummer a few minutes to figure out the beat to a song Boyer wanted to play next.

Lucky for Tyvek that first and foremost, they’re punks because even with a band that seemed brand new they were able to get their point across.   While his band seemed a bit robotic (one of them was dressed in vintage Devo yellow jumper, industrial glasses and cone top), Boyer was a bundle of awkward energy.  Like his guitar playing, he would unleash his body in spasms jumping around and pogoing around the stage.  He’s got a voice that reminds me of a stoner version of Ian Mackaye (Minor Threat/Egg Hunt/Embrace/Pailhead/Fugazi).  He keeps it cool though, never really going into  the manic screaming that Mackay tends towards. It seemed that Boyer only really required minimal backing and I think he probably could have pulled it off as a solo gig because it was his singing and playing that were front and center of the show.

The Tyvek record is cool in the way it interlaces these Joy Division sounding interludes in between melodic old school punk rock songs like Building Burning, Hey Una and Summer Things.  The songs last night didn’t really jump out at you like they do on the record.  It was almost as if they were playing with one arm tied behind their back.  They were good, but I left with the feeling that I didn’t really see the real Tyvek.  I guess I have to go to Detroit for that.

mp3: Tyvek – Hey Una (buy their album from Siltbreeze)


Nov 1 – Funhouse (again) w /Blues Control – Seattle, WA
Nov 2 – THE EAST END w/LITTLE CLAW, WHINES, ASSS     Portland, OR
Nov 3 – THE HUB – Sacramento, CA
Nov 4 – HEMLOCK TAVERN – San Francisco, CA
Nov 5 – BOMB SHELTER HOUSE w/TRAWLER BYCATCH – Davis, CA
Nov 6 – VACATION RECORDS – Los Angeles, CA
Nov 7 – ACROBATICS EVERYDAY – Irvine, CA
Nov 8 – TBA in Tucson – Tucson, AZ

Muscular!

October 23, 2009 at 10:15 pm | In Gigs, Neumo's, Record Release, Seattle | Leave a Comment
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Boat Fell

It’s not really a review, but if you head on over to my Flickr page there are some photos from last night’s BOAT record release show at Neumos with longer than normal captions.  Think of it as the new style review.  In case you can’t be arsed to click over, just know it was a blast: giant cardboard art, shakers, confetti, Jeff Fell masks and songs from one of the best bands in Seattle.  ‘Nuff said.

Dutchess and the Duke at the Crocodile

October 11, 2009 at 11:00 pm | In Crocodile, Gigs, Music, Seattle | 1 Comment
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Dutchess & the Duke | Dead Ghosts | Meth Teeth at the Crocodile – 9 October 2009

Dutchess & the Duke

Listening to the Dutchess and the Duke punk rock might not be the first thing that comes to mind. On the surface, they are two folkies with acoustic guitars singing harmony laden songs.  The punk attitude comes out in fits and spurts though.  They had begun to play I Am Just a Ghost which starts out quiet before roaring into a haunting harmonic crescendo and the talkers at the Crocodile nearly drowned them out.  Not one to grin and bear it, Kimberly Morrison yells into the mic, “Shut the Fuck Up!”  That is the kind of attitude that spills over into their songs and makes what in the hands of a couple hippies would be just boring mopey songs, but with the Dutchess and the Duke they turn into punk rock songs. Things also make a little more sense when you look at their history.  Morrison has played in the Intelligence and plays bass in Unnatural Helpers while Jesse Lortz’s former band was the lo-fi garage rockers Fe-Fi Fo Fums.

Their second album Sunset/Sunrise which was just release this past week is a very similar to their debut, but a little darker in it’s sound and more introspective in the lyrical subject matter Jesse Lortz tackles.  Sunset/Sunrise also sees Kimberly Morrison more prominently featured with not only her harmonies getting more play, but she takes the lead on two of the new songs.  Friday night at the Crocodile the Dutchess and the Duke were at full power, the duo was augmented with drums, keyboard, and bass (Ruben Mendez from the Coconut Coolouts).  The harmonies are the cornerstone of the Dutchess and the Duke and the entire band got in on the action, replicating what Lortz and Morrison created in the studio.   This was the first time I really noticed Lortz’s prowess on guitar, his leads seem simple, but his Johnny Cash crossed with Velvet Underground playing gave the songs on this night a little more allure, not that they needed any.  In the age of fixing vocals in the recording studio for people who can’t sing,  Lortz and Morrison are the real deal.  They ain’t faking it.  Real punks never would, would they?

mp3: Dutchess & the Duke – Living This Life (from Sunset/Sunrise, buy it from Hardly Art)

Of the two opening bands I was looking forward to seeing Meth Teeth who are from Portland and have an album out on Brooklyn’s Woodsist records.  Like most things on Woodsist, Meth Teeth could be described as lo-fi.  Live, they were just that, no more, no less.

The surprise of the night was Vancouver’s Dead Ghosts (redundant right?).  As I watched their shambolic set I could not stop smiling.  Their drummer with his tall lanky frame packed behind the kit reminded me of Rick Menck of Velvet Crush except he didn’t get up and come out to the mic to talk to the audience between songs.  One guitarist broke a string mid set, but they didn’t seem to be deterred and shambled on. I’m a fan of Italy’s Love Boat and San Francisco’s Nodzzz and so are these guys.  They’ve got a handful of singles out to date, but are apparently recording a full length with Bryan Sandridge who did the first Dutchess and the Duke Record.  Looking forward to that, indeed. Here’s video I shot of one of their songs:

Dutchess & the Duke set list and tour dates after the click…
Continue reading Dutchess and the Duke at the Crocodile…

Gothic Horrors

October 8, 2009 at 10:48 pm | In Gigs, Goth, Neumo's, Seattle | Leave a Comment
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The Horrors at Neumo’s, Seattle | 6 September 2009

Horrors not Whores

The fact that it’s nearly a month before Halloween didn’t seem to deter the hard core goths from making a night of it at the Horrors’s gig last night. There was lots of white face paint, fake blood, black tights with rips, a few wild whigs and even a guy with some weird mannequin like mask and a head wrap. Based on the press photos for the Horrors I was guessing that the band would be made up in their finest goth, but thankfully they dressed a bit down for the occasion. So the white makeup was missing from their faces, but they definitely brought along their dark moody attitudes. Singer Faris Badwan draped a trench coat over his tall lanky frame and hung on the mic stand like a young Ian McCulloch, and guitarist Joshua Von Grimm (obviously not their real names) looked very dark period Cure with his big hair and boots. It’s kind of amazing how UK bands have this knack for plucking from the past to conjure the ghosts of bands from the 80’s that should have been huge. In the Horrors’s case they’ve done their homework and have built their sound on some impeccable cornerstones. If you remember Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, the Sound or the Chameleons then you know exactly where the Horrors are coming from. Bands get knocked a lot for being derivative, but when you derive from such unknown greats, then you tend to get cut a little slack.

The band all but ignored their first album Strange House and concentrated on the much superior new one Primary Colours.  Badwan we easily the center of attention with his imposing figure and moody visage, he paced the stage like a wolf circling prey, looking part Joey Ramone part Alice Cooper. He’s got a deep foreboding baritone that is reminiscent of Mark Burgess of the Chameleons or Chris Reed of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and a sense for the dramatic.  At the big moments of a song he would cast up his arms to the air like a wizard conjuring a spell, making songs like Three Decades, Who Can Say and their cover of Suicide’s Ghost Rider seem even bigger than they already are.  The rest of the band were dressed in the obligatory black and kept with the program of looking dour, while at the same time rocking out. Bands like the Horrors suffer a lot of licks for being a bit too contrived, but if this gig is the norm, these guys don’t need the posturing because they’ve got the chops to deliver.  Badwan’s voice was amazing and the rhythm section added a nimbleness to the songs that doesn’t come across on the record.  If you’re looking to relive a few moments of the 80’s glory days or if you missed them and wonder what they were all about, go see the Horrors.  They’re like a history lesson of 80’s atmospheric, goth post punk bands. If you’re looking for super tight pair of skinny black trousers, they can probably point you in the right direction for acquiring a pair of those as well.

mp3: Horrors – Who Can Say (from Primary Colours, buy from XL/Beggars)


A bit of background, in case you were wondering…

mp3: Suicide – Ghost Rider (from Suicide)


mp3: Chameleons – Don’t Fall (from Script of the Bridge)


mp3: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Regenerate (from The Singles 82-87)


mp3: The Sound – The Fire (from From the Lions Mouth)


mp3: Echo & The Bunnymen – All That Jazz (from Crocodiles)


Horrors Setlist

Here are the rest of the North American tour dates:
10 October – Turf Club, St. Paul
11 October – Double Door, Chicago
12 October – Magic Stick, Detroit
14 October – Lee’s Palace, Toronto
15 October – Petit Campus, Montreal
16 October – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
18 October – Teatro Estudio Cavaret, Guadalajara
19 October – Jose Cuervo Salon, Mexico City

Staying Up Late With Grand Archives

September 27, 2009 at 9:52 pm | In Crocodile, Gigs, Music, Seattle, Sub Pop | Leave a Comment
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Grand Archives at the Crocodile, Seattle | 24 September 2009
Telephone Give Me Some Time

Saying a band will make you ache with sadness is not really a much of an impetus for getting you out of the house to see a gig.  A review that states they melted my face with their insane rock might do a better job of that, but Grand Archives make slow and sad pretty damn engaging.  Their songs slowly build like a steam engine making it’s way from the station. Before you know it the song has filled the room with and taken over your conscious.   At first glance you might think a band like Grand Archives shouldn’t be starting a gig too late for fear of lullaby-ing the audience to sleep, but the band not coming out until just before midnight appeared confident in their powers of arousal and stimulating consciousness.

Like they do on their new album Grand Archives started things off with the double ukulele attack of  Topsy’s Revenge.  One uke is always a treat, but as they say, two is always better than one, and then when you add in the bass hum of the cello,  you pretty much cannot go wrong even if the song’s subject matter is Thomas Edison electrocuting an elephant.  Grand Archives can make just about  anything sound heart wrenchingly beautiful, mostly is because Mat Brooke’s voice just sounds achingly sad.  He could sing a song about winning the lottery and ending world hunger and it would still be tinged with autumnal sadness.  Since they were playing a hometown record release gig, they had the luxury of bringing Mat Brooke’s former Carissa’s Weird band mate Jenn Ghetto (Ghetto’s band S was on the bill this night as well) on stage to sing on a couple songs which was not only a thrill to see, but kind of mini-reunion.   Grand Archives have been known for a choice cover or two and tonight we got a surprising version of ELO’s Telephone Line, except where Jeff Lynne and his band flourished the song with cheesy synth electronic flourishes, Brooke and his band gave us a straightforward harmony laden version.  As with the first their first album, it took seeing the songs live to really appreciate them, though I think that the band have done a better job on their new one Keep In Mind Frankenstein of nailing their live selves. And Yeah, they easily kept me awake past my bedtime.

mp3: Grand Archives – Silver Among the Gold (buy some Grand Archives)


Grand Archives Set list

Catch them on tour in a town near you:

Sep 26 BILTMORE     VANCOUVER, British Columbia
Sep 28 THE BIG DIPPER     SPOKANE, Washington
Sep 29 HABITAT     KELOWNA, British Columbia
Sep 30 PALOMINO     CALGARY, Alberta
Oct 1 STARLIGHT     EDMONTON, Alberta
Oct 2 LOUIS PUB     SASKATOON, Saskatchewan
Oct 3 PYRAMID     WINNIPEG, Manitoba
Oct 5 HIGH NOON SALOON     MADISON, Wisconsin
Oct 6 BEACHLAND TAVERN     CLEVELAND, Ohio
Oct 7 JOHNNY BRENDA’S     PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania
Oct 8 LE POISSON ROUGE     NYC, New York
Oct 9 SOUTHPAW     BROOKLYN, New York
Oct 10 GREAT SCOTT     BOSTON, Massachusetts
Oct 12 IRON HORSE     NORTHAMPTON, Massachusetts
Oct 13 CLUB METRONOME     BURLINGTON, Vermont
Oct 14 GREEN ROOM     MONTREAL, Quebec
Oct 15 MOD CLUB     TORONTO, Ontario
Oct 16 PIKE ROOM     PONTIAC, Michigan
Oct 17 SCHUBAS     CHICAGO, Illinois
Oct 19 7th STREET ENTRY     MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota
Oct 22 KILBY COURT     SALT LAKE CITY, Utah
Oct 23 NEUROLUX     BOISE, Idaho
Nov 12 CREPE PLACE     SANTA CRUZ, California
Nov 13 BOOTLEG THEATRE     LOS ANGELES, California
Nov 14 DETROIT BAR     COSTA MESA, California
Nov 17 PLUSH     TUCSON, Arizona
Nov 18 RHYTHM ROOM     PHOENIX, Arizona
Nov 19 LAUNCHPAD     ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico
Nov 20 LARIMER LOUNGE     DENVER, Colorado

The Pains of Being Indiepop

September 17, 2009 at 10:18 pm | In Gigs, Neumo's, Seattle | Leave a Comment
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The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Depreciation Guild at Neumo’s, Seattle | 15 September 2009
tpobpah
Photo from Joshc’s flickr stream

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are currently riding a relative wave of popularity.  I say relative for a few reasons. With the exception of maybe the Vivian Girls they are by far the most popular band today that plays Sarah, C-86, and (early) Creation influenced indiepop, a genre of music that has always had cult following, but never much more than that.  The only band that I can think of that was as popular doing the same thing was Velocity Girl in the early 90’s (Archie Moore of Velocity Girl mixed the POBPAH album).  Their gig at Neumo’s last night was well attended, but by no means sold out, but just the idea of The Pains getting booked at larger venues, playing summer festivals and getting people genuinely excited about music is one that redeems my faith in pop culture. Usually fans of indiepop are relegated to the dive bars, basements and ad hoc house venues to see their favorite bands play.

The opportunity to see a band like the Pains of Being Pure at Heart headline a big-time venue is one that doesn’t happen very often, so I should enjoy it right? Well, that’s what I did, and so did everyone else at Neumo’s last night.  The kids (and old folks) danced and pogo’d to the likes of Come Saturday, Young Adult Friction, Everything With You and This Love Is Fucking Right.  Front guy Kip Berman seems like kind of a sweet, sly guy.  He looks like someone you’d want your teenage daughter to bring home, but when you started reading his lyrics you begin to have second thoughts.  He greeted everyone with a shy How’s It Goin’ and then joked about stealing Mudhoney’s effects pedal, either superfuzz or bigmuff.  The band stopped mid-set when Kip said he couldn’t believe that they had forgotten to play their song Kurt Cobain’s Cardigan.  They remedied that immediately and then went straight into their self-titled theme song.  In my perfect world every band would a self-titled theme song, and the Pains’ theme song easily puts them in my perfect world with its anthem like refrain “we will never die, no no we will never die”. We all went crazy in our own sedated, elated and introverted indiepop ways.  It was a time.

mp3: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Higher Than The Stars


mp3: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Curt Cobain’s Cardigan


mp3: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart


buy: some The Pains of Being Pure at Heart records

Opening the night was the Depreciation Guild (Cymbals Eat Guitars who were also on the bill were hit with a bad case of food poisoning, a burrito apparently, and had to cancel).  Depreciation Guild are two fifths of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.  Pains’ drummer Kurt Feldman plays guitar and sings while Pains’ second guitarist Christoph Hochheim plays guitar and his twin brother  Anton Hochheim drums.  The Depreciation Guild are shoegazers true and blue, and on record their songs are blissed out fuzz fests with Feldman possessing a voice that reminds me a little of the late Keith Girdler of Blueboy.  Their set was good, but the songs came off sounding like they were the same song again and again.  I think this may be their first time playing live extensively, so I’ll chalk it up to growing pains because their 7 inch single that’s currently available from Kanine records is pretty nice.

mp3: Depreciation Guild – Dream About Me (7″ on Kanine, but sold out.  You can pre-order their album In Her Gentle Jaws though)

Fanfarlo’s Rushmore

September 16, 2009 at 10:33 pm | In Chop Suey, Gigs, Seattle | 2 Comments
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Fanfarlo at Chop Suey, Seattle | 14 September 2009
Fanfarlo at Chop Suey
The stage was set like a Wes Anderson movie. Fanfarlo had criss-crossed the ceiling with ropes holding triangular flags, strings of lights enclosed stage like a picture frame and bagged lights were set around on amps and in between the band. I kind of had a good feeling about Fanfarlo when I saw that they had brought with them a mandolin, violin, trumpet, melodica, clarinet, glockenspiel and a saw. With that diversity of instruments, you know at the very least it will be interesting. The show started with three of the band on stage and an acoustic rendition of Drowning Men. After that introduction, the remaining three members joined the others on stage.  The band were not quite dressed in costume, but they all had the look of just having finished play practice. With all the band on the still dimly lit stage, the drum march of I’m a Pilot started, and when the piano came in, the usually dark and dour Chop Suey stage came to life with the bright strings of lights glowing to match the sound of the band. It was eye popping, you could hear gasps from the audience and feel smiles come across everyone’s face as Fanfarlo and their little Wes Anderson movie set came to life.

Fanfarlo get compared to Arcade Fire quite a lot, but where Arcade Fire are all about pomp and bombast, Fanfarlo soften the corners coming across as a warmer friendlier band.  They can sound big, but they also know how to do quiet.  They all seem to be able to play multiple instruments, and apparently get tired of playing the same thing all the time based on all the switching off they did, and that restlessness spread to audience during the encore, when the band brought out hollow plastic whistling tubes and handed them out to various audience members for the song Ghost.  It was just about perfect (except for ducking a few times)  with the whistling forming and eerie bed of sound over which the band played.  Like the stage set up, it was just another example of the band making a big impact with tiny props.

It was a Monday night, but Chop Suey was pretty full for a UK band touring the US with no album out yet.  The majority of the people there must have been fans, because after the first encore the audience demanded another song.  The house music and lights were coming on but everyone persisted and the band obliged.  I rarely see a genuine encore, but this indeed was one, and the band were a little taken aback.  They weren’t sure that they even knew another song that they could play, but they pulled out the A-side to their second single You Are One Of The Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us.  It may be the poppiest song they have, and  just like the rush of the opening I’m a Pilot this put a smile on everyone’s face.  In a lot of ways a gig is like a salesman making a sale,  it’s all about the presentation, and Fanfarlo have got it down, visually and sonically.

Sound on the Sound was there too, and they got a review and photos.

mp3: Fanfarlo – You Are One Of The Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us


mp3: Fanfarlo – I’m a Pilot


buy: Fanfarlo’s Reservoir

Here are the remaining dates of their all too short US tour:

Popscene, San Francisco – September 17
Kungfu Necktie, Philadelphia – September 20
Bowery Ballroom, New York – September 21
Bell House, Brooklyn – September 22

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