popwreckoning

Underage, obnoxious drunk girls aside, I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a show as much as I did this one. I’m still reeling from Passion Pit and all shows since have been ho hum in comparison.

For those who have been living under a rock, Passion Pit is an electronic dance act that began as a solo project of Michael Angelakos. I’ve been following the act since the early Chunk of Change EP through present day. They just released a deluxe version of Manners available here.

Maybe it was that I was just too excited for Passion Pit or maybe it really was that the openers were lackluster, but bizarre genre picks in the southern/grunge rock of Bear Hands and the soul jams of Mayer Hawthorne and the County had me scratching my head. Bears Hands is relatively new, and I think with some more practice, they might be able to sort out some of their pitch problems. Mayer Hawthorne and the County was just kind of odd. They wore matching suits and the lead singer was prone to large gestures. I think he spent at least 90 percent performing with his hands stretched out above his head as if conducting a choir. They did throw me for a major loop when they mixed in a bit of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” Perhaps in another setting, these openers would have been better, but I think the venue was just too big, their sounds too garbled in the system and the biggest issue of all for me – they were just out of place. I wanted to dance and neither could deliver.

Mayer Hawthorne and the County Set List:
Star Time
Easy Lovin
Make her Mine
Maybe So, Maybe No
Shiny & New/Rain
Don’t Mess with Bill
One Track Mind
Blue Sky
Green Eyed Love
Biz/Just Ain’t Gonna
The Ills

Passion Pit did not disappoint on the dancing front.

Watching roadies set up was like being delivered into synth heaven. I didn’t even know that many synthesizers could be on one stage without the universe exploding. Short translation – It’s awesome.

Passion Pit delivered a set filled with popular Manners and a few surprises. Angelakos danced around the stage singing in his signature falsetto while rushing to reach out to the audience and play a few quick notes on the keys. The light show, the performance, it was all spectacular, but the really brilliance of this show was the community. I can’t decide if it was more fun to listen to Angelakos and company on “Little Secrets” or to join with the audience throwing my hands up above my head, while shouting “Higher and higher and higher.”

The set was enough to put a smile on this concert lover’s face, but then Passion Pit came back out to deliver one of the best encores ever. Off the newly released deluxe manners, Passion Pit performed a cover of The Cranberries‘ “Dreams.” Perfect for that lovely falsetto. You can check out a recording on NPR here.

A recorded mixed voice squealing “everything is going to the beat” signaled the final song of the night, “Sleepyhead.” Angelakos tried to thank the crowd and speak over the intro music to the song, but the front row all yelled for it to be started over – in unmarred completion. Angelakos stumbled back in disbelief at first before a coy smile crept up in the corner of his mouth. He nodded at his band mates and an explosive rendition of “Sleepyhead” began.

Do yourself a favor: see this band. But participate! No more leaning against back walls of venues with arms crossed and a jaded expression on your face. It’s time to participate, dance and have fun when you go to shows and Passion Pit is just the band to bring you out of your shell.

Passion Pit Set List:
I’ve Got Your Number
Make Light
Better Things
Moths Wings
Swimming in the Flood
To Kingdom Come
Let Your Love Grow Tall
Folds in Your Hand
Smile Upon Me
Little Secrets
—
Eyes As Candles
Dreams – the Cranberries cover
Sleepyhead

We Were Promised Jetpacks‘ headlining tour was hitting Lawrence, Kan. the same night as the Oscars, which would have hurt the turnout at a lot of other band’s shows, but WWPJ are not your ordinary run-of-of the-mill rock group. This was the band’s first time to Lawrence and considering they’re from Scotland, fans know what a special treat it is for this band to make the trek here at all. The show was abetted that both tour mates of WWPJ, Bear Hands and the Lonely Forest, have been picking up a lot of buzz lately.

Fans of Brooklyn’s Bear Hands can rejoice that they can see the fresh act in less than a month when they return to Kansas City with Passion Pit on April 5. Don’t delay buying a ticket. That show is sure to sell out.

It’s near impossible to not fall in love with every aspect Seattle’s the Lonely Forest.

The guys tried to encourage the timid crowd closer to the stage before they began with a dedication to the fellow Seattle band, The Lonely H, whom had just played in Lawrence the night before. Since I could easily predict what followed “And the Oscar goes to…” from watching the show before coming to this concert, I expected I was going to be able to do a similar thing with the music at this show. There’s only so many ways to follow-up a C major chord after all. Yet somehow, the Lonely Forest managed to completely surprise with their unpredictable key and tempo changes—and to think that they executed these changes with seamless transitions. The only cue that they really even gave that the songs were about to take an unexpected turn was that the singer would rock back on his left heel or slightly bend his knees to spring out into a big jump despite the stage being extremely close to the ceiling.

What really hooks one on the Lonely Forest are their lyrics. The punky singer (personality-wise, not in looks, which were more akin to Rivers Cuomo), had a voice that seemed to blend that of the Mountain Goats with that of Noah and the Whale (sans accent). The lyrics he sang teetered between a sentimental, Seattle, Washington loving ballad to the quirky set closer “We Sing In Time.” Of their eight song set, I especially loved “Coyote,” which was complete with howls.

These guys live up to their hype. They just became the first signing to Chris Walla‘s record label, so expect a fantastic release from them soon.

I caught We Were Promised Jetpacks before in a cave and while they were good, it seemed like everything that could go wrong, went wrong. It was a fest, so there a strict timetable they had adhere and it seems like half their set was lost to a broken string that resulted in the singer awkwardly saying random words in his thick accent for the very, very American audience’s amusement.

Still a little bit awkward when speaking with the crowd – he was quite surprised when “sweat out a burrito got a laugh,” he definitely was more at ease with his performance this go around and their slight awkwardness and modest demeanor between songs is part of their charm.

When WWPJ actually starts playing songs, that shyness goes out the window and they are just a giant ball of energy. If it wasn’t for the accent, it’d be easy to think they were a completely different band from how they play compared to how they speak in between songs. Cymbal and guitar heavy indie rock tunes drew the crowd closer to the stage and it seemed that the music not only washed away the band’s shyness with time, but also that of the crowd.

“Roll Up Your Sleeves”

I did my best to keep track of the set list and I apologize for a few gaps in my memory:

1. Keeping Warm
2. ???
3. Roll up Your Sleeves
4. It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning
5. ???
6. This Is My House, This Is My Home
7. ???
8. Ships with Holes Will Sink
9. Short Bursts

Finding myself in Seattle on a night before I have a seven page paper due is not a common thing, but on this particular Tuesday, I ventured to Neumos in Capitol Hill to see Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks, accompanied by local sweetheart band The Lonely Forest and Bear Hands of Brooklyn.
I hadn’t been to Neumos in a good two years, so I forgot how intimate the venue was.  But it was quite obvious that a majority of the 16-year-old girls and boys were there to see The Lonely Forest, and the older crowd came out for We Were Promised Jetpacks, but Bear Hands held their own, truly being the opener.

They played songs off their debut EP Golden, as well as their second EP, What a Drag, released last month. “Can’t Stick Em” from the latter EP was my favorite of their set, with a driving tempo and vocalist Dylan Rau building from the softer harmonies at the beginning to getting stronger and louder to meet the gritty guitar riff. Actually listening back to it now, Rau’s voice reminds me a little of David Portner of Animal Collective, how it teeters on the edge of notes. So if you like fuzzed out guitars and multi-layered harmonies, check Bear Hands out.

After Bear hands finished their set, it was close to 10, so the anticipation for Lonely Forest got to build for 20 minutes. Surrounded by crazy fangirls and one even crazier fanboy, I filtered through my pictures from the last hour. Then at about 10:15, The Lonely Forest got on the tiny stage and immediately thanked the all-ages crowd. Playing a selection from last year’s debut critically acclaimed We Sing the Body Electric, as well as some new songs, The Lonely Forest kept the energy going throughout their set. By the 3^rd song, front man John Van Deusen was already sweating profusely from his temples, switching from keyboard to guitar. It’s just a testament to how passionate this band is about their music and about their fans. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re great musicians too. The Lonely Forest closed out their set with “We Sing In Time,” which made the whole room sing a long, especially the crazy fangirls standing up front with me.

I liked what I heard of the new songs, and they were more upbeat and sunnier than We Sing The Body Electric, but I didn’t grab the set list, so I have no idea what the titles were. Just keep your eyes peeled for their new songs, and possibly a new album in 2010.

By 11:20, my feet were sufficiently aching. Every so often when the security opened the side door the gust of wind provided a sudden bit of relief from hot and sweaty venue. After a very long intro of “A Half-Built House,” with dozens of loops of the same voice repeating numbers, We Were Promised Jetpacks finally came on stage and dove into “Keeping Warm” off These Four Walls. I haven’t been listening to We Were Promised Jetpacks for long, but I loved how casual they were. The four guys just walked up on stage and started playing. No grandiose entrance or anything, and they were awesome. It could be my bias for UK bands, but for some reason, the Scottish accent makes all songs sound so much cooler.

After the first few songs I made my way out of the crowded front to get some water, and I noticed that the crowd had completely changed. The young fans that came to see The Lonely Forest had dissipated and most of the people I weaved through were older, who’d come to see We Were Promised Jetpacks. It was almost midnight, so that could be why, since it was a school night. And still as I stood off to the side, We Were Promised Jetpacks had the same impact in this tiny venue as if I standing right up front.

Bravo, Scotsmen. Bravo.

I readily admit it: I started to become a wee bit giddy upon seeing We Were Promised Jetpacks‘s curly-haired, hoodie-wearing guitarist Michael Palmer on the side, itching to get onstage and fiddle with his guitar already. All the memories of the band’s first appearance in the nation’s capital, an amazing but brief set at the Black Cat last October (on the Fat Cat Records Tour), came rushing back. Then, the audience was mixed in their loyalty, either to them or their labelmates Brakes (BrakesBrakesBrakes in America) or the Twilight Sad. This night however, there was no question that all 200 exuberant ticket holders at the sold-out show Saturday night at D.C.’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel were present to see them. But before getting to this point, let me backtrack to the evening’s two supporting bands.

Typefighter is an unsigned, local to Washington five-piece, describing their musical genre on their MySpace as being of folk, melodramatic popular song, and indie. I hadn’t gotten the chance to listen to their songs there prior to the concert, so I really didn’t know what to expect. But one look at the instruments onstage (banjo, ukulele, melodica, and keyboards, along with the usual guitars and drums) made me think, “homegrown Fanfarlo?”

I felt further confirmation of this as two songs in, the “da dum-dum” rhythm of one of Typefighter’s songs reminded me of Fanfarlo‘s “Luna.” While Simon Balthazar of the London-based folk pop band has said the title of their debut album Reservoir is related to a previous fixation about bodies of water, it appears this Washington band likes writing about boats and oceans. This is evidenced by songs like the metaphorical “Ocean Floor,” with despondent lyrics like “I’m waiting for this ocean floor to dry” and talk about sinking boats with holes. (Kind of weird that the Jetpacks have a song on a similar theme to this too, huh?) But trust me, the music itself is a lot more upbeat, with handclaps aplenty. Probably the most impressive was their set closer, “I Wrote This Song for You,” all band members singing along and snapping their fingers as lead singer/guitarist Ryan McLaughlin played ukulele.

Singer Ryan McLaughlin and multi-instrumentalist Mary Voutsas exchanged friendly, jokey banter with each other and with the audience between songs, lending a warmth pretty much absent from the other two bands’s sets. I noticed that among the many tattoos McLaughlin has on his body, he has a lighthouse on his left forearm. With lighthouses being beacons of light amidst dark and stormy seas, I feel like Typefighter just might have what it takes to shine, break out of here, and do well.

Cincinnati’s Bad Veins took a bit longer to get settled in to play, as singer/multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Davis needed just the right setup to anchor a telephone receiver in a mike stand. You read that right – a telephone receiver. Quirky is a good way to describe the rose motifs on the band’s drum kit and their telephone case and their third “band member” on display, an antique reel-to-reel tape player they’ve named Irene. With the mike stand problem resolved and Irene queued up, the duo came on to “Hail to the Chief,” leaving me wondering if only we as D.C. residents received this kind of welcome from them. Interestingly, Irene was used to add piano, horns, and strings that the two men onstage would not have been able to achieve otherwise.

Drummer Sebastian Schultz meanwhile was too busy pounding away on his drum kit (a kit I might add that was outfitted with four high-hats and cymbals in total). Schultz certainly earned his keep Saturday night, delivering powerful beats to go with Davis’s often theatrical vocal approach. At times, his voice would run emotional, sounding like James Allan of Glasvegas, but then all of a sudden turn shouty, like over the top Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects.

And I haven’t forgotten the telephone. All bands have a gimmick, and Bad Veins have a telephone that Davis sings into for some songs like “The Lie” and “Afraid.” All things considered, the telephone effect worked better than I thought, not only because of its uniqueness in a rock show, but because Davis would sing into the receiver and it sounded just like you would imagine hearing someone singing to you through the line. However, my favorite song of theirs, completely devoid of the telephone, was “Falling Tide,” a reminder of just how good rock ‘n’ roll can be when you’ve got forceful lyrics, killer guitar, and wicked backbeats.

11:30 rolled around and as I mentioned early on in this review, seeing guitarist Michael Palmer smiling and raring to go made me smile. Scotland is doing very well musically in my book, producing both Camera Obscura and We Were Promised Jetpacks, definitely two of my faves as of late. Good bands have excellent musicians or a charismatic singer. Great bands like the Jetpacks have both. The band’s opening number Saturday night, “Keeping Warm,” came in like a hurricane, the guitars of Palmer, lead singer Adam Thompson, and bassist Sean Smith wailing, and Darren Lackie beating his drums so furiously that one of his drumsticks broke and the broken piece flew into the air, landing near the front of the stage. (You know what they say about physics and momentum.) Even before Thompson uttered a word, the combined sound was so loud, it was as if the club was a jetliner and we were about to take flight.

The effect successfully built up the crowd’s excitement for seeing these four lads from Edinburgh, who played most of the songs off their well-received debut album These Four Walls. Before launching into hit “Roll Up Your Sleeves,” a smiling Thompson said to us, “thanks to everyone who came to the Black Cat show [last October]. That was a great show for us!” The crowd cheered appreciatively, one woman shouting back, “tell us a Scottish joke!” (This was most likely in reference to some jokes the Black Cat crowd had with Thompson the last time they were in town.) He considered this for a half-second before replying with a wide grin, “a Scottish joke? Fuck off!” Laughter.

I expected many in the audience to know and sing along to all of the words to songs like “Quiet Little Voices” and “Ships with Holes Will Sink,” but I was surprised when some provided loud impromptu backing with their voices on the instrumental portions of the set closer “Short Bursts.” Throughout the set, Thompson sang with the same never-wavering conviction displayed on their album that has no doubt made the band a hit with many music fans. The 10-song set included two new songs that unfortunately at this time have unknown titles, as I could not find the band nor their merch people afterwards to buy their new EP. But no matter. I expect the Jetpacks to make a triumphant return to D.C after becoming more of a sensation in the UK and Europe than they already are and the release of a successful second album. We Were Promised Jetpacks, the sky’s the limit!

We Were Promised Jetpacks Set List:
Keeping Warm
Quiet Little Voices
Moving Clocks Run Slow
New song (presumably not on the new EP)
New song from new EP
It’s Thunder and It’s Lightning
Roll Up Your Sleeves
This is My House, This is My Home
Ships with Holes Will Sink
Short Bursts

Tour Dates:
Feb 15 – Knitting Factory / Brooklyn*
Feb 17 – Casbah at Tremont Music Hall / Charlotte*
Feb 18 – Masquerade / Atlanta*
Feb 19 – The End / Nashville*
Feb 21 – Hailey’s / Denton, TX*
Feb 23 – Rhythm Room / Phoenix#
Feb 26 – Troubadour / Los Angeles#
Feb 27 – Slim’s / San Francisco#
Mar 01 – Biltmore Cabaret / Vancouver#
Mar 02 – Neumo’s / Seattle#
Mar 03 – Doug Fir / Portland#
Mar 05 – Urban Lounge / Salt Lake City#
Mar 06 – Hi Dive / Denver#
Mar 07 – Jackpot / Lawrence, KS#
Mar 08 – Waiting Room / Omaha#
Mar 09 – Varsity Theatre / Minneapolis#
Mar 11 - Lincoln Hall / Chicago#
Mar 12 – Grog Shop / Cleveland#
Mar 13 – Summit / Columbus#
Mar 14 – Radio Radio / Indianapolis#
Mar 15 – This Old Rock House / St. Louis#
* with Bad Veins
# with Bear Hands

We Were Promised Jetpacks: myspace | We Were Promised Jetpacks Plan Winter 2010 Tour of North America | @ Black Cat | @ monolith
Bad Veins: website | myspace
Typefighter: myspace

After having been asked to headline the Village Voice’s infamous Siren Festival at the historic Coney Island for several years, Built to Spill finally accepted the honor, following in the footsteps of some of indie rocks latest and greatest such as Ra Ra Riot, Broken Social Scene, Steven Malkmus and the Jicks, New York Dolls, M.I.A, Cursive, Popwreckoning favorites White Rabbits, TV on the Radio, and Death Cab for Cutie, to name a few. It’s generally speaking a who’s who of both up and comers as well as hard-hitting indie heavyweights and it’s FREE!

The last time I attended I was young 21 living in Williamsburg. It was the first year the festival took place. It was 100-plus degrees and by the end we were crispy, stuffed with zepolis, covered in beer and sand, and eventually everyone started to look like the side show freaks that Coney Island is famous for. That year we saw Peaches, Rainer Maria, Guided by Voices, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. It was quintessential New York, one of those amazing days where you keep pinching yourself, “Do I really live here?” But for some reason, I never returned to Coney Island or the Siren Festival after that. Truth, Coney Island was dirty, run down and kinda sad. A forgotten NYC treasure with a giant price tag and an expiration date that every New Yorker was aware of. Coney Island was finished…or so I thought. In terms of the festival and it’s stellar lineup each year, I always thought to myself, ‘Well, I can catch them at The Bowery….right?’

I had a change of heart this year. Lured by the opportunity to see Built to Spill under the shifting sky, by the beach, at the end of a perfect Summer Saturday, I returned to Coney Island nine years later, and now I’m left wondering why I waited so long. This years lineup included Built to Spill, The Raveonettes, Spank Rock, Frightened Rabbit, A Place to Bury Strangers, Grand Duchy, Monotonix, Thee Oh Sees, Future of the Left, Japandroids, Michachu & The Shapes, Tiny Masters of Today, Bear Hands, The Blue Van, Justine D., and Deadheat DJs.

Grand Duchy is Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis, a.k.a. lead singer of The Pixies, and if you don’t know that…well shame on you, go do your homework before continuing. Anywho, Black Francis and his wife Violet Clark are Grand Duchy and they played songs on the main stage from their debut album, Petits Fours. The hooky songs feature vocals from Clark paired with Francis’s trademark storming guitar riffs. Clark, in an artist statement, describes the music as a set of opposites: “eclectic and consistent, raw and cooked, smooth and rough, punky and pop, guitar and synth, he and she…Dinner and dessert.” Anything Francis does, in my opinion is genius. See Teenager of the Year as reference. Grand Duchy is another feather in his hat.

Built to Spill took the stage to play the last set, just as the sky was changing from day to eve and the Cyclone lights flickered on. The band that inspired Modest Mouse, Death Cab, and the ubiquitous Northwest Sound that followed, played for over two hours. They played everything you’d ever want to hear, giving the crowd just what they came for. Everyone knew every lyric. You almost didn’t belong if you didn’t. The first note of “Carry the Zero” dropped and the hardcores were high-fiving. Doug Martsch turned four-minute songs into eleven-minute epic guitar jams busting string after string as fireworks blossomed in the purple sky overhead and lovers clutched each other closer. It was ridiculously magical. People were literally turning to the stranger next to them with Cheshire cat grins. And again, nine years later, I’m asking, “Do I really live here?”

Coney Island hasn’t changed much in nine years. It’s still run down, forgotten, and kinda sad, but that’s what you love about it. It buzzes with nostalgia for a time when everything was hustling and bustling, when honey roasted almonds were five cents on the boardwalk, when the skyline mattered, and people believed in two-headed snake babies and one hundred pound rats. To visit Coney Island is a suspension of disbelief. Seeing Built to Spill in this context is a somewhat of a similar act, so good it must be fiction.

Built to Spill: website | myspace
Siren Fest: website

Stepping onto the stage before a crowd that was hardly interested in first opening act, Phil and The Osophers, the members of Bear Hands were comfortable, relaxed and ready to rock out for the entirety of their pre-Les Savy Fav time-slot at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Within minutes of launching into their first song, these Brooklyn rockers had at least half of those in attendance toe-tapping and head-bobbing along to their breed of post-punk experimental indie rock.

Alternating between jumpy electro-rock jams and somber Joy Division-esque testimonials, they kept the audience on its toes and wondering what would be coming next. The combination of lead singer Dylan Rau‘s cutting voice and talents on a Korg synthesizer and guitarist Ted Feldman and bassist Val Loper‘s penchant for indulging in percussion circles painted the picture of a band that is clearly comfortable with their burgeoning sound. Bear Hands was super happy about sharing their live set with such a receptive crowd that, by the show’s end, they pretty much owned the filled-out audience and got them pumped for Les Savy Fav…

What can one possibly say about this band that hasn’t already been said? Sashaying onto the stage following an impressive opening set by fellow New Yorkers Bear Hands, Les Savy Fav immediately launched into their growing catalog of idiosyncratic indie rock with the energy and enthusiasm of a band hell-bent on bringing in the dawn (so long as the booze was still flowing). Over the course of a set that included tracks like “The Equestrian,” “Disco Drive” and “Rage in the Plague Age,” singer Tim Harrington delivered his hysterically energetic signature performance, complete with stage banter and wandering the floor of the venue sans shirt.

Meanwhile, the band also managed to keep the crowd bouncing along to the beat. The combination of melody and discordance in guitarist Seth Jabour’s riffs set a frantic pace, while drummer Harrison Haynes and bassist Syd Butler provided a slick dance floor rhythm section perfect for the amped audience.The melding of art rock sensibility and post-punk abrasion resulted in a sound that eluded genre branding, like a page straight out of The Talking Heads and Sonic Youth.

With one song leading into the next that was occasionally punctuated by Harrington’s conversant banter with the crowd, Les Savy Fav delivered a no-frills, highly-energetic set topping many shows I’ve seen this year. It seriously felt like pure entropy and left nearly all in attendance with a sore throat and crick in the neck as the energy broke out onto 6th Street.

Guest Reporting by: Khurram Bajwa (NYC)

Brooklyn’s Bear Hands has several tour dates coming up with the likes of Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Ghostland Observatory and more.

Tour Dates:
May 22 – Mercury Lounge/New York City (w/ Action Painters, Saints & Lovers, The Jaguar Club)
May 31 – Grog Shop/Cleveland (w/ Broken Spindles)
Jun 01 – Do-Division Festival/Chicago (w/ Ted Leo & the Pharmacists)
Jun 02 – The Barbary/Philadelphia (EARLY ALL AGES SHOW! w/ Die! Die! Die!)
Jun 26 – Cuneen Hackett Theatre/Poughkeepsie, NY (ALL AGES! w/ Ted Leo & The Pharmacists)
Jul 26 – Prospect Park/Brooklyn (w/ Ghostland Observatory)

Bear Hands: myspace