What do a London soul singer have in common with two remix producing princes from Sweden paired with a singing, songwriting American? Not a whole lot. But the respective worlds of Jack Peñate and Miike Snow converged at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel Friday night for a night of pop revelry. Especially notable about this co-headlining tour was that this is the first time Peñate has ever toured North America (and indeed, this is probably the first exposure to him that people on this side of the pond will have ever had), and both acts were hotly tipped by the Washington Post‘s “Going Out Gurus” weekly column as a good weekend bet. So it’s really no surprise that the club was packed with ecstatic gig goers.
Jack Peñate went on first. I know his music thanks to British radio airplay of songs from his latest album Everything is New that came out just last month here in America but has been out in the UK since late June. He started with the title track from the album, followed by “Second, Minute, or Hour,” a jaunty single from his debut album Matinee, during which he banged away at his guitar. Having recently seen the video for “Be the One” here in America, I was not expecting him to pick up a guitar during his whole set (the video has Peñate standing in front of an old-fashioned microphone in a church like he’s Morrissey or something). This would not be only surprise Peñate had in store for us.
Through the course of his set, Peñate played most songs from his current album – as I expected, “Pull My Heart Away” was absolutely gorgeous live, pop balladry as its best, and “Tonight’s Today” and “Be the One” (his other singles from Everything is New) were lively numbers that got the crowd dancing. What I was not expecting: Peñate to take to the piano for “Body Down”, nor the audience interaction that Peñate engendered, summed up best by his involving some very surprised and willing kids in the front to sing the chorus of “Let’s All Die” with him, Peñate’s song urging us to live life to its fullest. For his sophomore album attempt, he recorded the kind of songs he wanted to make, and the love shows when he performs them.
Set List:
Everything is New
Second, Minute, and Hour
So Near
Every Glance
Pull My Heart Away
Let’s All Die
Body Down
Tonight’s Today
Be the One
Compared to Penate’s simple stage set-up, Miike Snow’s stage presentation is what I would imagine Tim Gunn saying, “that’s a lot of look!” With their outfits and lighting, they were trying for drama, and I think they achieved this pretty well. The band came on stage to play the impressive “Burial”, all of them wearing black from head to toe and white masks to completely cover their faces. It was a little creepy to say the least. Thankfully, the band – Swedish producing duo Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg (better known in the remix world as Bloodshy & Avant) and American singer/songwriter Andrew Wyatt, plus three additional touring musicians – all removed their masks after the first song. There were some sound issues at the start – it appeared that Wyatt’s microphone wasn’t working or at least wasn’t turned up high enough in the mix – but that looked to be resolved.
Nearly all of their songs ended with drawn-out instrumental outros, with lots of synth whirrings, sonic drum noises, and guitars crashing. Sometimes you didn’t know when one song ended and the next began. But this is fine because overall, the music felt like it was designed for the mellow clubber, eager to hear fresh beats from the latest flavor of the month. Well folks, the latest flavor is this band. “Silvia”, a song you can hear on the band’s MySpace, turned into an unexpectedly loud singalong: the crowd definitely knew their Miike Snow.
At the end of their set, they decided to leave the stage one by one and the club was still dark, spirited audience chanting for an encore ensued. About 10 minutes probably went by before one of the venue staff gave the all clear to turn the lights back on, which caused most of the crowd to boo and hiss. Usually when I attend gigs, it’s obvious when an act is not coming out for an encore, because the lights will go up and loud background music will come on. In this case because there was a delay in the lights and music coming on, I can understand why the crowd felt cheated, because it did seem like we were supposed to wait in the dark because the band was going to return for more songs. Maybe they planned to and changed their minds because of the sound problems? We’ll never know. One thing’s for sure: I hope both acts will return to the Nation’s Capital triumphant with more mainstream popularity.
Set List:
Burial
Black & Blue
Silvia
Animal
Plastic Jungle
Sans Soleil
In Search Of
Jack Peñate: website | myspace | Everything is New review
Miike Snow: myspace | @ Beaumont | @ Lollapalooza | Remix Monday: Miike Snow
