A Place To Bury Strangers / Holy Fuck @ Bottom of the Hill
Two up-and-coming indie bands for the price of one. The downside being the puny stage these guys were forced to play on. I’d say this is, aesthetically, my least favorite venue in San Francisco. Their shows are usually too good to pass up though.
During this performance, I overheard someone behind me proclaiming this band’s sound to be a concrete wall of noise. He was understating it, to be more accurate, it was like an unpenetrable force-field of kickassery. There’s certain expectations of a band that’s been compared to Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Sonic Youth. Believe me, A Place to Bury Strangers lives up to those. They played through their self-titled album’s songs along with some new songs, each one retaining the epic effect it held on recording. They didn’t linger far from their reputation as the undisputed kings of loud. Thankfully, a careful control on pitch ensured that their thunderous sound wasn’t too painful for the crowd. If you have the chance (along with a capacity for loud volumes), this is a live show I’d recommend seeing.
Quick, hard, heart-pounding drum beats on top of electronic experimentalism with a guitarist to boot. Well, that’s the basics of the other emerging group of talented musicians that we saw that night, Holy Fuck. Their name suits them well, LP is a short album packed with as much intensity as humanly possible. In a way, their set was seemingly similiar to the album. It was over too soon, some songs dragged on too long, but achieved perfection in an indescribable way. Watching them made me a little envious; they’re young, having the time of their lives, and making music that they love. I don’t claim to know anything about them, but that’s definately the aura they gave off during their performance. It really was an incredible show, and at only $10 a ticket!
So Many Dynamos / The Mountain Goats @ Bottom of the Hill
An enormously different concert at the same venue, only two nights later. This one I attended because my father is a big Mountain Goats guy. I didn’t know much of what to expect. It was a matinée show, so that was a different experience in itself.
So Many Dynamos’ frontman (as seen below) continually struck poses during their set that I’m sure would fit perfectly on his Myspace, but not on a stage. I get it; he was trying to be cute. Maybe he truly believed that his facial expressions would cover up the brutal squealing of poorly played guitars? Now, I’m aware that this band has a fairly large following. My admittance that this is one of the worst live bands I’ve ever seen may incite some hard feelings, but I’m not too worried. Anyone able to put up with that treble-inflicted garbage that they dare to call angular rock has certainly put up with more. Poor performance and an all together wreck of a band. Go listen to Test Icicles or something instead.
The night wasn’t totally lost though, The Mountain Goats made up in whole for the preceeding artists. The place was packed by the time the band finally came on stage, and it quickly became apparent that there’s alot of people who take this band very seriously. From hardcore fans who could sing every last lyric to the newcomers soaking in the greatness of this band; everyone was really into it. The singer, John Darnielle, harbored an unrestrained goofiness in his stage performance that seemed to put everyone in a good mood. He’s a clever one, I didn’t realize how impressively intelligent his lyrics were until during the show. Darnielle can paint clear pictures with lyrical imagery and tell a story about love and war like a WWII veteran. Never in my history of concerts have I seen a band come out for so many encores, about four or five, that’s how dedicated the crowd was. I realize that I did a load of skipping around in this review, but there’s so much that could be said about this band’s live show that it’s hard to cover all the bases. Mountain Goats are a band with a healthy reputation and a close knit fan base, which befits them after so many years of releasing quality indie rock.
The Honeydrips / Jens Lekman @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
The concert that I was most excited beforehand about, hands-down. I had been reading raving reviews about the venue, on top of my mounting excitement towards seeing everyone’s favorite Swede. It really is a great venue by the way, though it is geared more towards an older crowd then I’m used to.
The Swedish (go figure) solo act The Honeydrips opened up for Jens. Unfortunately, it felt a great deal like some sort of glorified karaoke. The sheer awkwardness of a man standing on a stage and scarcely singing along to the background music playing on his laptop, well, it was too much for me. I’ll give him credit though, he has quite a signing voice on him. You know, if it weren’t for his lack of any sort of viable live show, I’d say he’s pretty well off. I didn’t enjoy it too much, but who can really fully enjoy a one-man laptop band. Give this guy a band, please!
(No picture or clip, sorry)
Jens’ live show was an expected gem for me. The amount of humor, passion, and creativity he puts into his albums is bound to be reflected in his performances. The surprise in this one was the band, all non-Jens persons, that is. On drums, cello, violin, samples, and bass were all females, and talented ones at that. Can you imagine that? Women who are actually good at playing instruments! Before I get a inbox full of hate mail, I was only kidding. Thankfully, Jens’ jokes were a whole lot funnier then mine. He was hilarious, each of his overly-detailed and outlandish stories caused an eruption of laughter. The set came out beautifully, the vocals and instrumentation seemed flawless. All this plus the added personality to everyone’s favorite songs made for a good time.
YACHT / Vampire Weekend @ Rickshaw Stop
A stuffy, sweaty, uncomfortable, heap of young hipsters in a small venue? Just my thing! Not too bad a place, probably not the best venue for housing a sold out Vampire Weekend show.
YACHT opened up the night pretty aggressively, as a disco/dance/pop band damn well should. I can’t say much, for me to be critical of dance music would be breaking every rule in the book. What book, you ask? The book of dance.
The first thing that stood out for me during Vampire Weekend’s set is the amount of energy they bring to such simple and delicate tunes. The crowd felt it, as was imminent by the mass of moving bodies and singing lips in synchronization. And for a show that people were asking $80 for on ebay, why wouldn’t they be? I knew that Vampire Weekend had been making quite a name for themselves ever since their album’s release, but I underestimated the vast number of fans they’ve managed to attain. All the success definitely has not gone to the band’s heads though. They all still sport their sweater vests, college tees, and fun-loving approach to playing live that separates them from the rest. Their songs came out smoothly, a streamlining of songs to keep a good and gradual pace. If anything, each song sounded even more striking live then ever before. “A-Punk” and “M79″ being a good example of two fantastic tracks that just didn’t quite catch my attention on the album. The only disappointment was the end, which I suppose normally would be a positive thing. The difference being that this set’s limited length was only because of their lack of material. The band’s 11-track album was pretty much the entirety of their live show. That’s what I signed up for though, seeing a live band whose discography consists of one album doesn’t leave much room for variation. Vampire Weekend has a great deal of room to grow, It’ll be interesting to see where this band is a few years from now.
Concluding Words
Why am I trying to make this horribly obtrusive “concluding words” thing my signature style? Well, it stems from my inability to reach a finishing point once I get off on my tangents otherwise. Plus, sometimes lazy readers like me enjoy skipping to the summarizations and all the important stuff. As far as the concerts, I can’t say I enjoyed any one of these concerts more then another, each was equally entertaining and pleasantly surprising. Looking over all I’ve seen this month, I had to go back and ask myself why I didn’t just go to Coachella instead. All these bands would’ve been there along with performances guaranteed to be remarkable, such as: Animal Collective, My Morning Jacket, Les Savy Fav, The National, Aphex Twin, Hot Chip, and maybe even some Justice. Basically, just bands that I’d have to be crazy to miss out on. It all comes down to money though, and that $300+ amount just looks like such a strain. Oh well, hopefully next year’s line up will be even better. I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen for now though, all these concerts have been an amazing experience. Thanks for reading!
(All pictures and clips were from the concerts that I attended, unless I’ve been fooled)
