Girls @ the Black Cat. Photo by Holly Le.
Yet the surfing fun times never surfaced in the San Francisco two-piece's set at the Cat. Instead, Christopher Owens and J.R. White played a perfectly morose set -- a sort of surf-gaze version of their infectiously melodic 2009 full length, Album. Only one single, "Lust for Life," seemed to rise to the tempo set by Girls's recording. Every other number dragged. In part, the cool tempo was a feature, not a bug: The band employed a huge snare drum sound, the kind that would be right at home on a spacey dub record. The spare rhythm-and-bass section served the recording well, but more activity might have moved the live versions along.
Owens's voice is the standout feature to Girls, and Girls sounds like Buddy Holly on a West Coast vision quest as a result. At the Black Cat, though, Owens sounded more like Lil' Wayne covering Mazzy Star. He didn't disappoint live, exactly, but the slower, dubbier sound left him straining to support notes that had no business being so long.
The set by Girls dragged, but the band's approach to rock – melodies as crisp as Peter Bjorn and John but with fuzzed and frayed edges – still makes for an artful performance. Opening act Real Estate suffered from the same surf slowdown, yet brought with them none of Girls's redeeming features. In fact, Real Estate hardly brought verses. Over several meandering numbers, the song only changed because vocals appeared – and disappeared as abruptly.
Style revivals like surf-punk are easy to pull off... on paper. The surf-gaze angle is more novel, if less invigorating. What it tells is that the carefree summer guitar sound isn't as easy as it's supposed to sound.

Chesnutt Dead at 45


I agree. Its not going to change how much I enjoy the album, but I thought the performance was too desultory. If I'm dissapointed, its in the steep $12 cover and that The Girls were a little late getting on stage forcing some folks to miss the encore so as to catch the metro.
Wait, did you seriously just complain about a $12 cover being expensive?!
Eff ya.
I don't think there was an encore, actually. The house music came on as soon as they finished playing "Lust for Life." I didn't stick around to find out though, because their set was too soporific for a Tuesday night and I was ready for bed because I'm lame and old.
I really enjoyed Real Estate, actually, both tonight and when they opened for Japandroids last month. I love their jangly REM-at-the-beach guitar sound. Sucks that their set started late because the singer broke a string on the first chord of the first song, though.
Glad I didn't go after all.