It was a decent lineup.
It isn’t often that I look at a night’s lineup and think they are all worth seeing. I usually think, crap, my group is opening! A 30 minute set and then “my time” is over, bummer.
Thursday, April 21st at Rock n Roll Hotel was one of those rare moments when I did not have to “dig deep” or “mentally prepare” to tolerate any of the bands featured. I was pleased. More than pleased.
First up, Gypsyblood, who definitely have the potential to be a high-energy hit, but I would love to witness a break through the warm but often impenetrable fuzz. The blur of vocals that I thought might sound “so punk,” quirky, and strange (which I gathered from listening to “My R.K.O. Is M.I.A”) turned out to be entertaining for a few songs, but I was admittedly relieved when their set ended and Delicate Steve took stage.
I had a feeling Delicate Steve could deliver live, but I had doubts and questions fill my head: Will all of those instruments fit on stage? Thanks to Chuck Klosterman’s fake press release, I didn’t know what was real and what was not regarding Delicate Steve. While he may not play forty instruments, I was sure there would be several. How will Steve run around to strum, beat, and tickle them all? The fake bio described them as “a hydro-electric Mothra rising from the ashes of an African village burned to the ground by post-rock minotaurs.” So would it be afro-pop or electronic jam?
I adored Delicate Steve’s set. He captained the oversized band and showed wonderful musicianship, and it was afro-pop, electronic-jam, jazz, southern-indie rock, and more. I felt like I was back at Bonnaroo in 2004, and all of the bands were playing simultaneously. It was smooth and exciting and had the added benefit of not missing one group at “which tent” or “what tent” trying to get to “this tent” or “that tent.” Stubbornly, I am typically a worshipper of lyrics, but these talented tricksters entertained me with “guitar as vocals” in my live favorite “Sugar Splash” and the repetitive and poppy title track “Wondervisions.”
If you like Ratatat and Andrew Bird and the Allman Bros, you’ll like Delicate Steve.
Maneuvered through the clacks and speed-precision guitar by Dave Davison’s voice, Maps and Atlases bring an intense, joyful sound to the stage. Percussion-centric bands can often get lost in the rhythm and bore to tears taking turn after turn soloing, but this conglomeration of talented cross media artists keeps it live. Davison’s solo project Cast Spells only endeared me more to M&A; it’s comforting to find a group of people who share a common passion but have so much more to express that they use multiple outlets. I hope M&A sticks around for a while longer, but whatever DJing, Thrashmetal, poster art, and film-making any of these individuals would like to engineer, I’ll watch, listen, support.
