A rainy Monday night in Charlottesville///// thanks to the people that came out to make the evening bad ass.
RHYTHM BANDIT :: I am the RHYTHM BANDIT. I fuck shit up. People like it I think. This show had a guest appearance by Jesse of Gang Gang on the floor tom. According James Ford from mortal death enemy blog nailgunmedia.com it was my best show so far. I play again on the 23rd @ the tea haus in cville with FUTURE ISLANDS + OLIVIA MANCINI.
HIGHLIFE :: One dude from London with a voice that oddly reminded me of Colin Meloy from the Decemberists. He uses one guitar and a sampler to produce his sound. He started with two Ballad like songs featuring his signature Afro-beat guitar playing and his crooning vocals. then he started adding the electronic influence with beats and sounds from his sampler. Soon he had progressed to using only the sampler and had a full loop going at which point he seemed to be channeling what Animal Collective did with Merriwhether Post Pavilion. It sounded very similar at that point. He yelled soaked in reverb/delay over the hypnotic repetitions coming from the sampler. As I said what he was doing at that point wasn't a very original sound. BUT what he started out with was a unique blend of songwriting and African influenced guitar melodies. I enjoyed his set very much, but I wished he stayed in his own awesome realm.
GANG GANG DANCE :: What we've all been waiting for, I was psyched about this band coming to town for months, finally to have my dreams realized. They started with building ambient sounds that led into the song "Crystals". Their intro was fantastic but to be honest the second song just seemed straight up more tripped out sounding than them pushing boundries with their sound. BUT they soon after fit into the groove, and I started to feel the energy pushing at me. The drumms were pounding and everything was electric. They definitely created a wonderful atmosphere in the southern one that was conducive to dancing because a good portion of the crowd was doing so. The show as a whole was ultimately very entertaining, SUPER EXCELLENT. But as far as it being memorable, every single part of it wasn't a breath of fresh air. While the sound they scape is orignal and I remeber it being very captivating, the only moments that I really remember were when they turned one of their songs at the end into a blistering wash of fast drums/cymbals/synth/everything at once. AND one song that I don't know the name of that was mind blowing, because it just burst in after being assaulted with a wall of noise. with a very focused motorik beat and fast paced key striking. They definitley get into a perfect groove during their set. I caught them last time they were in the area at The National in RVA opening for Of Montreal. That was a weird pairing and a weird show. I talked to GGD about wtf opening for Of Montreal. They told me it was a very odd four tour dates with them, and that for the richmond show Of Montreal had taken all of the sound equipment and had left GGD very little to work with, a reason for their set being a little off kilter that I now understand. Awesome night.
Love,
Dylan
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