(NOTE: black moth DOES NOT allow photos on this leg of the tour)
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I’ve come to the conclusion that Scandinavia and its residents will forever follow me wherever I go as a reminder of the things I am missing by not living there anymore.
I strolled into the Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday evening to be greeted by a sea of very tall men. Now, if you’ve been out in DC you will know that we are all pretty short. I mean, sometimes I feel like I am tall in DC and I am only 5′6.
So WTF, where did all these giant dudes come from? Denmark.
That’s right.
To my delight, two of the opening bands were Danish.
I mean really Danish.
Tall and lanky but with big fat beer guts (again, Danes love beer) protruding over their chicken legs, sleazy mustaches and very tight pants.
I came in just as the first opening band, Slaraffenland, was finishing up. From the last parts of the song I heard, I knew it would be a night of typical Scando sounding Under Byen/ Sigur Ros-esque ambient weirdo goodness. Look em up on Myspace, they are fun.
So after a quick stage change, the next opening band comes on-Efterklang another Danish import. From their distorted background noise to their clarinet/trumpet/trombone switching, they were a delightful new discovery. Genuinely enjoying themselves, they belted out their songs with such a passion you thought their livers would slip out of their mouth and into your eye. They must have each changed instruments at least 3 times which leads me to believe they are pretty skilled musicians and in turn gain my respect. Their music could best be described as cutesy Scandinavian electro pop.
The third opening band, yes three, was Subtle. At this point it was getting kind of late and I was antsy to see the real deal- Black Moth Super Rainbow. So Subtle take the stage and the lead singer is wearing a white tuxedo and robot glasses which gets me kind of excited. Then they started playing some indistinct music and I became confused. I just could not get into this. Was he rapping? It was a strange indie hip hop mix that I couldn’t really place. The only thing that came to mind was Dr. Spock from Iceland. If you don’t know who that is look it up and be confused. I went upstairs for the remaining hour.
Finally at 12:45 am BMSR take the stage.
This seemed like an obscene amount of time to be waiting around for a band.
Forget 3 opening acts, that was just too much.
Anyway, they emerge with all their vocodor tinged glory. I first heard of this Pittsburgh based band at SXSW and was instantly impressed. I had been looking forward to this show for a while and suffice it to say, they lived it up to my already high expectations. I got up close to inspect the set up since the last time I was too far away from the stage to actually see the band. All the vocals and distortions were coming from a man sitting way down to the ground. You could have easily thought these were pre-recorded but the live vocals add a further depth. Most eyes will go immediately to the bassist (I think?) with the gigantic beard and hair band, his whole persona screams on the stage; but really I think the girl drummer deserves the glory. Did anyone see her rocking out? It was glorious.
Known for using analog instruments, vocodors and being influenced by “psychedelic” music, there is something progressive about their nostalgic sound. “Zodiac” with its 70s style keyboard strokes make me wish I was French, smoking and in a discoteque. “Sun Lips” starts off as a sexy lullaby and erupts into a synthy slow dance where you wish you were kissing someone’s sweaty lips in an open field. At night. In the summer. The song just oozes intensity but never loses its softness. The music can be pretty but never too poppy. There is always a mysterious element that makes you curious and yes, nostalgic. A great performance on their part.
Add a bit of Air, a bit of the 70s and maybe some Doors, and you can possibly come close to BMSR.
My only complaint- the whole concert took too damn long. 930-2am with all these breaks in between? Next time lets speed up the action and have less waiting around.
