If, as has often been argued, pastiche is one of the defining features of “postmodern” culture, then Girls is a band that is very much of the times despite its decidedly retro-leaning sounds. An undeniably talented — yet in many ways unoriginal — songwriter, Christopher Owens led his San Francisco-based quintet through an enjoyable 80-minute set at the 9:30 Club on Monday night, confidently staking his own claim to vast swaths of rock and pop’s stylistic terrain.
Though the venue was well short of capacity, a young and enthusiastic crowd was on hand as Girls opened with the bluesy “Darling” before launching into the buoyant, ’80s-tinged “Heartbreaker”. Alongside some piercing lines from the lead guitarist, Owens did his best vocal impression of Kevin Shields during “Alex”, his voice sounding almost as lush and creamy as on record as he affected the adolescent sentiments of the song’s lyrics — “Alex has blue eyes. / Well who cares? No, I don’t. / If somebody somewhere cries, well who cares? No, you don’t. / And Alex has a band. / So who cares about war? / If somebody somewhere dies, well who cares? / No, you don’t.” A few songs later, Girls blatantly aped The Beach Boys during the first verse of “Honey Bunny” before veering with exhilarating abruptness into the song’s punchy new-wave hook.
The genre-hopping continued unabated throughout the evening, so much so that the heavy-metal jam “Die” seemed tacked on for show, the band displaying no discernible sense of irony as it flexed its muscles on some drawn-out riffage. Indeed, Girls applied the same earnestness to 1960s-pop homages like “Magic” as they did to more contemporary-sounding tracks like the angsty, autobiographical mini-epic “Vomit”. Unlike some of his fellow musical bricoleurs (Beck comes readily to mind), Owens delivers his appropriations without a parodist’s wink-and-nod, seamlessly and shamelessly making already-familiar sounds his own.
While Girls’ latest album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, is probably its strongest statement to date, it was the instant classics from the band’s 2009 debut that elicited the most fervent reaction from the crowd. Mid-set, the bouncy jangle of “Laura” drew effusive cheers, and later the opening chords of “Lust For Life” were greeted with an eager anticipation that befit one of the most infectious indie-rock songs of recent years. During the encore, fans sang along to the stirring, cathartic crescendos of “Hellhole Ratrace”, capping the night on yet another time-honored note.
