Brightest Young Things

All words and photos: Faith Desired

Monday night at Ottobar in Baltimore I was able to see Deerhunter, Times New Viking, and Aids Wolf. I was excited to see a club show after my night at the Wachovia this past Saturday, and this show had been on the calendar for weeks. It was my first time seeing all three bands. Actually, I had never even heard of Aids Wolf before this night.

As we were waiting for the show to start, Shawn and I had a discussion about noisy bands and how loud they are at clubs. Personally, I like a show that's loud. There's really no other way to enjoy live music. We got there fairly early and got a little sneak peak into Aids Wolf as they quickly sound checked a bit of a song just after doors had opened. First thing I noticed - fantastic drums and VERY loud.

Aids Wolf of Montreal, took the stage with lead singer, Chloe Lum, dressed in a black body suit with a vibrant green cloth draped over her head. There was no build up to the music - it just bursted into climax so loud that hearing the vocals was impossible; however, this only added to the music because whatever vocals Chloe was emitting was coming out in her performance. Singing through the green cloth, she worked her way out of the covering, leaving it trailing from her body as she made her way to the edge of the stage - singing directly to a guy up front - then easing her way out into the crowd where she proceeded to sing the next 3 songs hanging onto members of the audience, screaming in their faces and flailing her body this way and that. She made her way back on stage for a song then ended the set from the audience again, letting out her final notes from the floor with her body curled over the mic. Watching her performance was a bit mesmerizing and made it difficult to notice anything else. Musically, their sound was not as good as their performance - but, it was LOUD and that is always a good thing. Drummer, Yannick Desranleau was the most energetic drummer that I've seen in quite awhile. Their whole set just sort of came on with a bang and ended the same way.

Times New Viking, a low-fi indie band from Ohio brought in quite a crowd to the Ottobar. It was obvious that a lot of people were there to see their performance. The first thing that I noticed was how basic and simple their equipment was. Everything was rustic looking and had a very "vintage" look to it, which appropriately matches their home-recording style of music. I was pleased to see the keyboards placed on top of a bar stool instead of a keyboard stand. Very admirable. Following suit with Aids Wolf, their music was loud, but not as noisy as the opener. With a mix of melodic tunes and erratic movements, Times New Vikings brought out a lot of energy in the crowd.

Headlining the night was Deerhunter who I had been told would not be as noisy as the other bands at the show, however that was not the case. Deerhunter was so loud that even their drummer, Moses Archuleta requested about 3 songs in that the base amp be turned down or else he would be deaf by the end of the performance!

I had read of lead singer, Bradford Cox's gangly and tall appearance and what I thought first when he walked out on the stage was that I wish I had that wide lens to replace my one that is broke. He stood over six feet, easy, and was so thin that in one shot I took of him, his frame looks mere inches wide! Their guitarists were excellent and having 4 guitars on stage, their sound was a mix of noise and acoustic melodies. Ottobar was pretty full by the time of their performance and the crowd interacted with band members liberally and Bradford Cox mentioned a few times that they loved Baltimore.

This show was so good that driving to DC the following night to catch the show again was tempting. The only disappointing thing would be that Aids Wolf would not be playing... they performed in DC this past Sunday night. However, I am sure those attending the DC show will get a performance just as enjoyable as I had Monday night at the Ottobar.