Au Revoir Simone, Oh No! Oh My! @ RNR Hotel
The thing about mellow bands is no matter how good they are on record, they can be less than ideal to watch live. Unfortunately that was the case with Au Revoir Simone last night at the Rock and Roll Hotel.
The three woman, three keyboard band from Brooklyn (none of whom are named Simone), play poppy, sweet indie that's light on vocals. They're busy these days, touring Japan in December and writing about it for our sister site Gothamist, and they're off to Europe with Air soon.
Their drum machine-backed songs are gentle, subtle, mid-tempo, and great to listen to when reading or relaxing or sitting out on a sunny day — but that's not the Rock and Roll Hotel. Which is a shame, because the band is fun and likable, switching vocal duties and adding the occasional melodica in concert. And they're definitely cute — just see their music videos, where they're making cookies and hanging around in treehouses. We didn't expect to get our faces rocked off at the show, but a dark club at 11 p.m. on Wednesday was just too late to see quiet music. They'd be great to see earlier in the day, or maybe sitting somewhere like a grassy amphitheater.
Au Revoir Simone photo from their Myspace
The band was joined by openers The Mikal Evans Band, who are a local folky rock group, and Oh No! Oh My!, a four piece band from Austin who we'd been looking forward to seeing for awhile.
The young Austinites (three 21-year-olds and a 28-year-old) play quirky, mostly acoustic music using a range of instruments and the occasional electronic flourish, like the soaring guitar in "Reeks and Seeks" and the electronic blasts in "I Love You All the Time." The band released their self-titled debut last year and are touring behind a new EP, "Between the Devil and the Sea."
They rotated instruments (except drums) throughout the set, and Greg Barkley's somewhat nasal vocals fit the songs well live, which can sometimes be a problem for distinctive voices in concert. The energetic tunes, which are already pretty concise, seemed shorter live, but that didn't affect the crowd, which responded with enthusiasm and clapped along frequently. It was a thoroughly enjoyable set, and we look forward to seeing them again. We're also curious to see D.C. in the band's tour videos.