all words and photos: Joel Mittleman

Norwegian face melters, Serena Maneesh, and Brooklyn shoegazers, the Depreciation Guild, filled DC9 with a thick fog of guitar effects and laptop-powered vibes last Wednesday night.  Though both bands were solidly enjoyable, ultimately neither was importantly memorable.

The Depreciation Guild is a band I really want to like. Led by the drummer and guitarist of one of my favorite new bands, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart and garnering praise from such tastemakers as Pitchfork: this is a band I should be into, right?  Though their performance opening for Pains at the Black Cat this fall left me decidedly unimpressed, I was determined to give them a second chance.

After their set at DC9, I can confidently say this much: they’re quite pretty (both their sound and the members themselves—those bangs!).  The songs are structured around simple, Nintendo-style samples played off a prominently placed Macbook.  This foundation gets washed over with waves of guitar fuzz, precision percussion and breathy vocals.  It’s nice.  It evokes the Cure or Siamese Dream-style Smashing Pumpkins without being encumbered by the emotional weight of either.  Any playlist for a spring afternoon would be well served by the addition of “Dream About Me.”

Still, the band mostly felt like a whole lot of appealing style without any enduring substance.  Their guitarist had the shoegaze affect down to an almost caricature-like science, refusing to break his gaze from the numerous pedals arrayed in front of him and keeping the beat by tossing back his long hair.  Their singer performed with a practiced disinterest, doing his best not to privilege his vocals among the general haze.  And, though the laptop Nintendo beats added a certain charm, I think they were also critically limiting, preventing the band from venturing too far from their tightly composed originals.  Meh.  Maybe they’ll get more interesting on their soon-to-be-released sophomore attempt.

Oslo’s Serena Maneesh is a more complicated beast. On these pages, Alfonso’s suggested that they “sound like Broken Social Scene covering My Bloody Valentine remixed by Amon Tobin.”  Time Out NY warned that their show is “the equivalent of watching primal hunters spear wild boars on stage with electric guitars, stunning the savage beasts with bolts of feedback carnage.”  Though I’m more inclined toward Alfonso’s assessment, I can understand both.

The band first made a big stir with their 2006 self-titled debut, which was a torrent of imposing bass, electronic glitches and fierce guitar shredding that earned them spots opening for Nine Inch Nails and Oasis, as well as countless Loveless comparisons.  The long wait for their just-released second album—the somewhat comically named SM2: Abyss in B Minor—has only increased the mystic of this Nordic five piece.  Like Alfonso, I was stoked to see finally see them.

And, oh, what sight to behold.  Particularly against the diminutive stature of Depreciation Guild, Serena Maneesh were defiantly out of place (an image helped in no small way by their drummer’s insistence on smoking throughout the set, to the shock and delight of the crowd).  They were tall, blonde, tattooed and kinda mean looking.  That is, except for their singer Emil Nikolaisen.  Wrapped in a gypsy-style shawl and duct taped skinny jeans, he looked like what might happen if Chuck Bass went to Burning Man and got lost in the desert with only a sack of mushrooms and some eyeliner.  I suddenly felt very far removed from my usual stock of Brooklyn wimpsters.

Their performance was consistently engaging, but less raw and explosive than I had hoped. They can definitely play: each member was a master of their instrument, exploring their full range sonic possibilities throughout each lengthy, meandering song.  Their keyboards and vibes man, Aadne Meisfjord, was particularly fun to watch.  Behind a wall of electronics, he would readjust his various plugs and then shake like a mad scientist, quivering with the power he had unleashed.

The best part of the performance for me came in seeing that the band is not as off-puttingly serious as their work suggests.  With song titles like “Her Name is Suicide” and “Your Blood in Mine,” I expected a powerful but charmless group of musicians.  I was wrong.  Though the bassist was noticeably stern and statuesque, their general vibe was defined by Nikolaisen, who was a genuine and appreciative mess.  He repeatedly told the small-ish crowd how much it meant to him that they were there, and ended the set by thrashing about in the audience.  His improbable friendship with Sufjan Stevens (who gets production credits on both the band’s albums) started to make a little more sense.

I left the night feeling as though I’d seen two bands whose ambition doesn’t quite match their accomplishments so far. Both bands were clearly positioning themselves in the shadows of great, more enduring groups like My Bloody Valentine.  It allows for easy appeal, but it’s also a long shadow to get out from under.  From what I saw Wednesday, neither band quite has what it takes.

Previously in Live DC:

• Live DC: Marina And The Diamonds @ 930 Club
• PHOTOS: 30 Seconds to Mars @ SONAR (brought to you by Maybelline)
• Live DC: Autolux @ Black Cat brought to you by Moldex Ear Plugs
• Live DC: Dominique Young Unique @ DC9
• Rock The Bells Report
• PHOTOS: Family Hemerlein August Edition
• LiveDC: Matisyahu @ 930 Club
• PHOTOS: Scissor Sisters @ DAR
• Live DC: Tears for Fears @ 9:30 Club
• Live DC: Vivian Girls / Brett and the Whispers / Heavy Cream @ Comet