Live DC: Les Savy Fav / The Dodos / The Big Sleep @ The Cat

April 8, 2008 by Matthew  Send to a Friend

all photos: Sexy Fitsum

Friday night’s show at the Black Cat held a ton of promise not just because the always fantastic Les Savy Fav was headlining, but also that one of my new favorite bands, The Dodos, (who’d just headlined DC9 days earlier) was opening.

Trying my damnedest, I still wasn’t able to get to the Cat before the show started to scope out a good spot for The Dodos, but I managed to get in for what I think was their first song. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this duo who, on record, sound almost as huge as the Arcade Fire, but they absolutely blew me away. Sticking largely to songs from their incredible new album, Visiter, the duo (playing drums and guitar, and occasionally joined by a xylophone/percussion guy) created intricate loops that gave their songs a gigantic sound. Meric Long’s gorgeous melodies and intense energy combined Logan Kroeber’s pounding drum beats got my night off to a fantastic start. Unfortunately the band only played half an hour, far too short in my opinion, but I’m sure they’ll be back to play another headlining show in the near future.

Next up were Brooklyn trio The Big Sleep, whose sound seemed like early heavy metal-inspired post rock. About half of their set was instrumental, while the other half contained sparse vocals, usually one or two lines repeated over and over. Their energy was great, but they didn’t seem to be able to keep the crowd going as their set went on. The songs were too repetitive and all started to sound the same after a bit, with the exception of the fantastic “Pinkies,” which put everything else they played to shame. Note to The Big Sleep: Write more songs like this please!

As Les Savy Fav was finishing setting up their stuff, something akin to military theme music started to blare over the PA and singer/performance artist Tim Harrington grabbed a microphone. Suddenly he was in the audience, acting out both sides of a telephone conversation that could’ve been the beginning of a cheap Hollywood action movie. His daughter and the President had been kidnapped, and he needed to come out of retirement to rescue them. Half of the audience seemed completely bewildered, but the other half knew that this was exactly what to expect from a Les Savy Fav show.

As he returned to the stage and the band launched into the first song, Harrington was quickly out of his sweater and writhing around topless. Over the course of the night he changed clothes several times, kissed at least one guy in the front row, borrowed several pieces of clothing from audience members, got up on the bar, came out into the crowd and humped a guy against a pillar and stuck his fingers in my mouth. Yes, you read that right folks, Tim Harrington’s fingers were in my mouth, and I’m still not sure how to feel about it. I felt kinda thrilled to be part of the show, but my girlfriend refused to kiss me until I’d gotten home and brushed my teeth, so clearly she was slightly less thrilled.

Anyway, back to the show. The band played a fantastic career spanning set, and Harrington’s bandmates never lost a step as his wild antics went on around them. In between every song, he even continued to move the plot of his faux spy movie forward (he even did end credits as the house lights went up). The music was excellent for most of the set, but they seemed like they were running out of steam by the night’s end, understandable for a band that expends so much energy on stage. I could probably only tell you five or six songs that they played, but that’s not really the point of a Les Savy Fav show, it’s really all about the entire performance, and it was largely fantastic, well worth the price of admission any time they come to town.

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