MCMAF Show Review: Black Fiction, Lemonade, The Fucking Ocean, Head Like a Kite @ 12 Galaxies

May 22, 2007

Saturday the 12th’s bill at 12 Galaxies traversed the pop, punk, and electronic universes, but provided a good time for the many who swung through for part or all of the night’s festivities.

Photo by: JJ Caguin

In bumming-me-out news, The Fucking Ocean announced during their set that John, one-third of the noisy post-punk trio, was soon leaving for New York, although the band intends to soldier on in a bi-coastal fashion. Having just returned from a cross-country tour, the band was in top form at Saturday’s show, and it’s a real shame that they won’t be playing as many shows in the coming future. Despite the more-than-capable stage at 12 Gs, the band opted to perform on the floor with a few vocal mics and allowing their amps and drums to deliver the band’s tense, immediate songs on their own. If you weren’t there, you may have missed the band’s last performance for a while and, if so, you missed out.

Photo by: JJ Caguin

The band followed a performance by Seattle duo Head Like a Kite, who may have been the anti-Fucking-Ocean in their sharp suits, synth and drum machine-fueled set of electronic pop, and the backdrop of home movie clips projected onto the stage’s screen. Like their visual presentation, HLaK’s sound is a well-orchestrated mix of live instruments and programmed sounds that I’d like to hear more of in the future.

The Head Like a Kite-Fucking Ocean trajectory made more sense when Lemonade took the stage and provided the surprise highlight of the evening. This trio mixed samplers and delay-soaked vocals with live bass and drums to create anthems that worked the crowd into quite a frenzy. It was clear that a good portion of the crowd was there to see them, including one guy who looked so much like a young Kevin Bacon, that it made me long for a contemporary remake of Footloose with a Lemonade soundtrack. I understand that these guys have multiple 12″s and a full-length that they have been working on, and I hope these recordings can capture the amazing energy they can create with their live show. Until the recordings come out, check them out if you’re looking for some psychy mind-blowing, forward-looking dance rock.

Photo by: JJ Caguin

Rounding off the night was a thoroughly enjoyable set by Black Fiction. As we learned in our interview with the band a little while back, these guys are not only working on new material, but are also continually reworking their older stuff too. To that end, Saturday’s set featured a more intense rock take on some of the material from Ghost Ride, including a version of “You Must Not Bury Someone” that ratcheted up the tempo and the guitars to powerful effect. It was an appreciated take on the material, although I’m also a fan of the band’s poppier, quieter moments as well (see: “I Spread The Disease”). Still, I have to give a lot of credit to a band willing to challenge its own performance abilities and its audience’s expectations by evolving on the stage–it’s one of the things that makes me keep wanting to see this band again.

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Written by Ben Van Houten · Filed Under MCMF, Show Coverage, Show Reviews

MCMAF Show Review: Port O’Brien and Andy Tisdall @ Hemlock Tavern

May 22, 2007

Port O Brien

For Port O’Brien, Saturday’s set at the Hemlock Tavern served as both a homecoming and a farewell for a large and enthusiatic audience. The band’s set was certainly a more personal show than the well-received performance I saw when they opened for Bright Eyes’ at the Great American Music Hall a few months ago, a feeling generated more by the mixture of big fans and old friends in attendance than by the size of the room. The band played with an enthusiasm likely enhanced by the knowledge that this show was their last show for several months, as three of the four members are heading up to Alaska to spend the summer working in the salmon industry.

The receptive room ate it up as the band moved from one catchy, driving number to the next. Despite being a relatively young band, Port O’Brien seems to have already mastered the art of big choruses with group shoutalongs, an audience participation element that will no doubt help them win new listeners, and, which, in the conifnes of a room already on-board, brought things to a frenzy ablely sustained throughout the set.

It was during this frenzy that you sensed that this is a band nearing a turning-point. This might have been obvious before Saturday’s show, with a new Port O’Brien CD to arrive in a few months, shows booked at two British festivals in September and plans to tour sometime after that. Their performance at the Hemlock, though, confirmed to everyone there that the attention this band is about to receive is very well-deserved.

I was excited to see opener Andy Tisdall for a first time, since I’ve been listening to his 2006 solo CD I Want Your Brain regularly since we received it at the headquarters last year (and we’ve included songs in these two mixes). At Saturday’s show, Tisdall and his rhythm section played a strong, straightforward set of material from the CD, with Andy’s voice leading the charge. The live setting limited the opportunity for Tisdall & Co. to recreate some of the production and instrumentation nuances that pepper the CD, but Tisdall’s strong, emotive singing and songwriting, neatly balancing melody and passion, are the biggest draws.

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Written by Ben Van Houten · Filed Under MCMF, Show Coverage, Show Reviews

MCMAF Show Review: Petracovich @ The Make-Out Room

May 22, 2007

Photo by: Reid Williams

Thursday night, The Make-Out Room hosted a relatively rare performance by Petracovich. Playing some new songs amidst the favorites from her two albums, Jessica was joined onstage by a drummer, which enhanced the organic, folk-oriented side of her folktronica sound. The electronics made their appearance as well, in the form of loops of voice and sound recorded and played back live, which is a great detail I wish more artists would use to keep the audience engaged while incorporating samples. As warm as the instrumentals were, though, Jessica’s voice was just as compelling, and the large audience responded to her set with appreciative cheers.