The Mega-Update of Show Reviews, Part V
This is the fifth and final post on most of the shows I have seen in the past two months. Check out the others too: one, two, three, and four.
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH • APRIL 18
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah came in to the Sirius studio for a live session and an interview. They played an acoustic version of "Satan Said Dance" (MP3) and it is better than the album cut. They aren't ones to talk about themselves in an interview but do like to bullshit. There are more pictures at Product Shop.
HOT CHIP • APRIL 20
First and foremost, I would like to point out that Alexis taped his keyboard to look like an old school Nintendo. Anyway, Hot Chip played too much new music for a headlining show at Webster Hall. I really wanted to hear most of the songs off The Warning, and the band seemed to be road testing a lot of new stuff. I still love hearing them live because their music breaths on stage, but the show lacked the flow of their free South Street Seaport set last summer.
SPOON • DAVID VANDERVELDE • APRIL 23
Spoon played a warm-up show at Bowery to prepare for the release of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I bet they played every song they know because the show was like two hours with a four-song encore. Toward the end this started to feel like an overdose but they did a good job of spacing out their gems. David Vandervelde opened the show and appeared more confident on stage than the last time I saw him at Piano's. Ms ModernAge and Stereogum were also there.
THE BOOKS • REAL QUIET • APRIL 30
The Books and Real Quiet played together in the Wordless Music Series at The Society for Ethical Culture. Both bands used a cello so they were a good pairing. The Books incorporate a lot of archival footage and home video into their performance. Watching the show, the album looks like a byproduct of the performance because the two were so well synched. Real Quiet was similar because a lot of their music felt like a film score. Yeti was also there.