Brightest Young Things

all words: Erik Anderson
all photos: Jane Briggs

Saturday night-- The huddled shivering rain drenched crowd, filed into the Black Cat’s main-stage with eager anticipation. The stage was cluttered with a wide array of synths, guitars, amps, and a plethora of effects pedals for some dynamically diverse, sound-drenched, fun.

Animal Collective’s own Geologist was busy DJ-ing between sets... I wish there was more to note on the subject, but he simply, quietly, filled the silent void with expected ambient, electronic, and all-together forgettable tunes.

Selmanaires opened the show, with an eclectic, but all together stylistically muddled set. There were notes of experimental, post-rock, a dose of Talking Heads, a little guitar funk, tropicalia, and a healthy serving of world beat. There are countless bands that draw their influences from a diverse, seemingly unrelated, smattering of influences; the problem with Selmanaires is that they lacked a cohesive element to bring it all together.

Broadcast’s projector screen and effects laden set-up definitely looked intriguing. They launched into an atmospheric din of ambient synths, tape loops, and chorus-reverb drenched humming, to the black and white visual accompaniment of grainy stock footage and geometric shapes...

The visuals kicked into a psychedelic array of colors and shapes, and bass-heavy sampled drums thundered underneath layers of synth, guitar, and ambient singing.
Vocalist Trish Keenan utilized a chorus-delay effect on all of her vocals, which made it extremely hard to make out the melody of her lines. The songs performed were all together fairly strong, but it differed drastically with their recorded material.

Broadcast seemed to employ a series of tricks to compensate for the loss of 3 members, but all in all they demonstrated that generally, samples and effects can’t make up for live instrumentalists.

I wanted to like Broadcast, I tried to imagine how I would feel about it if I had not seen it in a concert hall, but in an art museum instead... It may have been texturally interesting, and visually striking, but all together I feel like it lacked purpose or any thought provoking material.

Atlas Sound consisted of Bradford Cox and the Selmanaires as his backing band. They sounded full and texturally lush. Cox has the uncanny ability of bringing all the sounds and textures together and wrapping them into little pop gems; his reverb soaked crooning seemed to bind everything perfectly. Acoustic guitar and harmonica seemed to interplay and mingle harmoniously with the electronic undertones of his songs.

The night had it’s fallacies, but Atlas Sound made it worth the wait. There was something genuine and heart-felt about the music. While it had diverse elements, there was still something distinctly American about it, and more importantly, distinctly his own.

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
• 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
• 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
• 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
• 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
• 5/22: LiveDC: Penguin Prison & Class Actress @ RNR Hotel
• 5/21: LiveDC: James Morrison @ 930 Club
• 5/21: Photos: Que Sera L'Anniversaire @ Napoleon
• 5/21: LiveDC: La Sera/ Beach Week @ Red Palace
• 5/21: LiveDC: The Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys @ Merriweather Post Pavilion