It was a long but good day, and by the time I found my way to the long line snaking down Sunset leading into the Echo, I was a little crispy. Waiting for my friend Leslie to meet me, I was kind of in dire need of a cocktail - stat.
While waiting, I notice a strikingly attractive young lass coming up the street towards me. Upon further inspection, I discover that it is none other than Ms. Jena Malone herself, wearing a very odd wig over her long brown hair. Oddly, it looks good. She starts playing in the street with an older woman and a young girl, who she identifies to a friend as her mother and little sister. It's a kind of weird scene, but not really. Maybe if you've seen a lot of Jena's movies it would've been pretty trippy.
Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox comes out of the club with a couple of guys and puts some stuff in the trunk of a car right outside. The gaggle of hipsters behind me starts quietly freaking out. OK…
Oh look, here's Leslie. Yay. Partytime. The line shuffles its way towards the door when I see my friend Jeff. As in Weiss, he of the amazing Passion of the Weiss blog (read it and weep, kids. No punches pulled - ever). Once we’d gotten him and Corie into line with us and worked our way inside, a beeline was made to the bar.
I should’ve known where things were headed once we started drinking Beam. Yeeouch. Jena Malone got on and was quite dramatic. I blame it all on Joanna Newsome. She whipped off the wig at a pivotal moment in the set (a premonition of things to come), and I’m impressed that her band (AKA "Her Blood Stains") is made of up actual seasoned musicians. That’s not something you see everyday, especially at the Echo.
It was fairly obvious that a large portion of this packed-to-the-back crowd was there to see Deerhunter (pictured), fresh from their latest album, Cryptograms receiving a rare 8.9 rating at Pitchfork. It would seem that a lot of people believe in that sort of thing here in LA.
When they take the stage, Cox is wearing a flowered housedress and a massive, spidery black wig that looks like an exaggerated take on Patti Smith’s haircut from the cover of Horses. I overhear a couple of people comment on “that crazy skinny-ass girl up there.” The music is nothing short of a maelstrom; a whipping whirlwind of layered drones and Cox’s reverberated incantations. I mean this stuff carried. The Patti Smith wig seemed apt, as I could easily imagine this band playing a set between her and say, Television at CBGB’s in 1977. The drums just sort of pulsate, with songs morphing one to another, like the one-two body-slam of the song “Cryptogram” into the Jesus & Mary Chain-gone-free jazz of “Wash Off, ” from the Fluorescent Grey EP (it a recipient of a healthy 8.8 on Pitchfork. We know whom they’re hearting back in Chicago…). “Spring Hill Convert” slowed things down to a narcoleptic thud. “Hazel Street” skipped with the hot foot of New Order circa Power, Corruption and Lies - if you could make any of it out through the blinding wall of noise eminating from the stage.
Where their recordings can be dreamy and even child-like, the live Deerhunter experience was a much darker, confrontational affair. It's taken me a few days just to wrap my head around the whole thing. But I'm pretty sure it was nothing short of monumental (monumentally good? Bad? The choice is yours). All I know is that I can't stop listening to them now. Should I be scared? Knowing me, probably.
The Ponys? Yeah, they were as good as I remember them being back in 2003 when I saw them supporting their outstanding Laced With Romance album at Spaceland. The only real difference was how much louder they were this time, plus they had more songs to choose from, thanks to their stellar follow-up Turn The Lights Out. Big, big rock these Chicago kids pump out. I would go into more detail, but around the time they hit the stage I became extremely preoccupied with something a lot more fun than just standing around taking notes on a band. Life's too short, you know?
All in all, I'll rate this one as super-fun and good (and rather surreal) and simply leave it at that.
(Photo of Bradford Cox is from SXSW 2007. I found it on Brooklyn Vegan. Thanks y'all!)
1 comments:
You are a much much better person than I and this is a fine review. I wish I had the ability to self-edit, unfortunately like Austin Powers un-frozen, I just can't control the volume of my voice.
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