Russian Futurists opened, and I was looking forward to them, they play poppy type rock. I was surprised to see mostly keyboards and drum machines though, I assumed they would be more a guitar and bass band. However, they were alright. The sound was kind of muddy and all of the songs sounded pretty similar, with the same tempo and instrumentation and volume for the most part. They weren't bad, but weren't good. (Picture of Russian Futurists below)
Junior Boys were next, and were excellent. I'd heard a lot of buzz a few months ago (in Spin and other places) saying they were the next Postal Service, better than the Postal Service, etc, and I heard a few songs then and didn't agree. However, they were great, if a little annoying. The lead singer seemed kind of pretentious in between songs, complaining about the lighting and how bad the sound was, when actually it sounded great to me, it was clear and crisp, unlike the Russian Futurists. He said towards the end "when bands go to Hell, they get this PA," which must have made the club people mad, because they immediately turned the lights out, so Junior Boys played their last few songs in the dark. However, the music was great, pretty minimalist techno, with only a drum machine, keyboard, and the singer on guitar or bass. The songs usually built slowly and got my bobbing my head at pretty much every song. I was going to buy the CD, but it was $15, so I decided to wait and get it on Amazon. (Picture of Junior Boys below)
Caribou (formerly Manitoba) were the headliners. I had heard a few songs around and figured they'd be slow kind of spacey, jammy techno with maybe one or two people, but they actually had 4 or 5 guys and rocked pretty hard. Sometimes Dan Snaith, the lead singer, would sit down at a second drum set and the two drummers would play at the same time, which sounded great. They also had a really cool video show of weird cartoons they'd put together, and again I recognized few songs, but really enjoyed it. Basically they'd have a drum machine track, some samples, some drumming, guitars and keyboards. Their music is sort of hard to explain, hypnotic indie rock/electronica with extended, but not annoying, jams. Simple analysis: they rocked, especially when the two drummers went to work. I think I smiled every time they started.
Basically, the show as a whole was good. I liked Junior Boys the most, but I was pleased in general. Then I went to a Wawa and saw the Real World Philadelphia house.
Mp3s here for the bands:
Russian Futurists (click "Discography")
Junior Boys
Caribou
No comments:
Post a Comment