May 7, 2007
Blonde Redhead @ the 9:30 Club
Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Barney is dating a Japanese art student? And they show up at Moe’s and she orders "a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man’s hat"? We can kind of imagine Blonde Redhead frontwoman (and former art student) Kazu Makino ordering that same thing. And Makino’s otherworldliness is so captivating that, like Moe, we probably wouldn’t bat an eye.
Decked out in a menacingly short shirt-dress, Makino took "shoegaze" to the extreme, rarely revealing the face behind her curtain of shaggy bangs. Along with her husband, Simone Pace, on drums, and his twin brother, Amedeo, on bass/guitar, she played the bulk of the trio’s latest album, 23, plus a few older songs. These included "I Don’t Want U," from their 1995 debut, and "In Particular," a haunting song from 2000’s Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, the disc that established the band’s credibility and set them apart from New York’s myriad pretentious no-wave acts.
While past albums might have seemed a bit remote to the average indie-rock fan, 23 is BR’s poppiest project to date, with songs that are comparatively taut, structured, and, well, song-like. Last night’s show had a nice rhythm to it, with quiet, introspective numbers spaced in between spurts of thumping operatics and guitar-heroics. BR’s sound is a unique mix of gritty (drones and synths) and gauzy (Makino’s airy vocals). "Lush" is a word often used to describe the band’s sound, and it is certainly apt. Their music is made for the unpredictabilities of the stage, and manages to sound even more sumptuous and complex live than it does on their albums. It is also undeniably sexy music, as evidenced by the couple in the front row making out for the duration of the show.
The downside of such heady music is that, after a while, it begins to blend together. Though they started off strong, after about 40 minutes, BR began to lose momentum. Much like going to the opera, a BR show is beautiful but not particularly fun. Hence the people leaning on the railing of 9:30’s balcony with their heads propped in their hands for the last couple songs, even though it wasn’t even midnight yet.
So while it’s safe to say Blonde Redhead didn’t win over any new fans last night, the diehards in the first few rows went home happy. Even on their most accessible release to date, Blonde Redhead still have a brand of whimsy that’s as specialized as a plum floating in perfume served in a man’s hat. A niche market, sure. But if that’s your drink of choice, then nothing compares.
One band that definitely earned some new fans last night was opener Fields. An audience member observed that, while she wasn’t blown away by Fields musicianship, she was hooked by their energy and likeable stage presence, and will probably end up buying the album, which drops tomorrow.
Photo of Blonde Redhead by Sebastian Mlynarski, from the band's MySpace page.
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Though the new fans may not have liked the show the large group that I went with really did. We got to do the silkscreened poster for the show which is available at www.eljefedesign.com.
sounds suspiciously like someone pimping their own business to me. please tell me that's not the case.
That is probably the worst incorrect Simpsons reference I've heard in over a year. Yoko Ono described merely as a "Japanese Art Student" in the "omer's Barbershop Quartet" episode. What, fingers too tired to type in imdb.com?
nice catch, don. i was remembering the episode as i saw it when i was a little kid. i verified the quote, but not the character who said it. good thing we have simpsons vigilantes out there for accuracy's sake.
Not only is the reference too unspecific, but the remark comparing Kazu Makino to the "Yoko" Simpsons character is quasi-racist too.
what, no review of the National and Arcade Fire show?
hi mark. i'm sorry you felt my comparison of Makino to the character from the simpsons is quasi-racist. i immediately noticed similarities between them because they're both somber, arty, and hippie-ish, with similarly bizarre, erudite senses of style. oh, and right, they are both japanese. i don't think there's anything particularly racist about noticing that. if i had tried to show them both in a negative light because of their race, or if I had tried to lump vast swaths of Japanese people into the same archetype, I could see your concern. i didn't do that, but i'm sorry if the comparison rubbed you the wrong way.
what, no review of the Le Loup show???
Did anyone else notice how much canned sound they played with? Half of the songs they had to make up some spacey guitar noise to wait for the tracks to start. I was very disappointed. I don't go to a show to hear the exact album played over the sound system. I go to hear a performance. When an artist has to play with pre-recorded sound it makes me feel like I'm watching karaoke.
They lost me during the first song they performed. Dr. Strangeluv has the coolest cowbell rhythm in the world (listen to it and try to duplicate it... pretty complex). I wanted to be very impressed with their musicianship but like so many modern acts it doesn't pay to see them live.
@ jess: YES! I thought the same, and I also thought to myself that if you're going to be a touring band, you can at least add a keyboardist to your lineup. Nobody seems to mention the canned sound in their show reviews.
All the reviews I've been reading have been too forgiving in calling theirs a "niche" sound. Personally, I think they gave up after Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons and got lazy and boring.
I left during the fifth song. At least The Frames were pretty good, as was watching the 19 year old ridiculously high hipster girls dance to absolutely nothing.
This is probably gauche, but I did a writeup of the show here in case anyone is interested.
I, for one, greatly appreciated Ms. Lavin's comments regarding the BR show. I think she hit the nail on the head with a lot of key points pertaining to the actual show. I adore BR's new album but feel that it lost something in live translation. It's sad to see that some can get so caught up in details that they miss the bigger picture. Memorized episodes of the Simpsons and degrading others through online forums just screams Revenge of the Nerds...
I attended the show at the urging of a buddy who caught them in Austin at SxSW and I can say they won over a new fan in me and another friend who attended with me. I won't pretend to be anything other than a layman in terms of musical engineering, but I was certainly impressed with their sound despite not needing to know every last detail of how it was produced live. Kazu's vocals alone took my center stage. The show did have little fan interaction, but I took it as an intimate focus within the band (and the horse that Kazu freqently sung to). Btw, who are the Frames? Does he mean Fields, who opened for them?
Hah, yeah I messed up; it was Fields. I guess I misheard at the show.
That's embarassing.
just to clarify - amedeo and kazu are the two that are together - not simone and kazu
Kazu is married to Amedeo Pace.
Oh and BTW Fields SUCKED... WTF was that Neko meets Fleetwood Mac... come on!!!!!
Oh btw the Fields SUCKED... WTF was that Neko meets Fleetwood Mac.
I mean COME ON!!!