CONCERT REVIEW – Bluebrain w/ Molly Siegel (Ponytail) and Empath at U Street Music Hall – 3/19/10

Washington, DC’s Bluebrain has a hit on their hands with debut album Soft Power. The indie rock duo with pop sensibilities are comprised of Capital City rock scene veterans brothers Ryan and Hays Holladay, and their intended goal is to clearly provide the listener with an emotion defined by the three e’s of economy, excellence and experience. The economy comes from a lack of frill and pomp, just two guys with instruments replete with scads of talent. The excellence comes in how solid and professional they sound, their music feeling more well-honed and crafted than many young indie acts. And experience lies in the desire to create an indelible impression on the fan with a positive sensory overload of a live set. Bluebrain’s 45 minute headline performance at Brightest Young Things’ “First Blood” event at DC’s newest shining darling, the U Street Music Hall? Solid, and a tremendous green light for the progress of the city in gaining an international foothold.

Employing dual stands with one brother handling a myriad of percussion instruments, while the other plays a synthesizer accentuating excellent pre-produced backing tracks, Bluebrain plays in front of a screen broadcasting unusual and intense visuals, from a myriad of words appearing in a manner consistent with subliminal marketing to a veritable array of Rohrshach like designs, the neurological project that shares the same name comes to mind as Bluebrain conceptually isn’t so much about musical prowess as much as they are about creating a full and enriching aural and visual experience.

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/album=2331254841/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

Last night, tracks from Soft Power when amplified by the temple of boom that the U-Hall has become stripped some of the strength away from the both delicate and driving interaction between songwriting and melody most key to the band. Audio mixing at the venue for tracks like “Ten by Ten” which move from triumphant heavenly vocals to riff and break driven dance melodies will be one of the challenges for the venue as positively, I can tell you that Bluebrain are a well prepared and sonically sound band with deep grooves. Negatively, it wasn’t until I sat and listened to their album and learned that there is an inherent understanding of the human condition apparent in their music.

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BLUEBRAIN – Funny Business from BLUEBRAIN on Vimeo.

The DC area is lusting for an international breakout star to call our own. The die was cast strongly for US Royalty and Wale, and while gifted, the jury is still out on both performers. Bluebrain on the other hand brings to the table a powerful groove blended with pop dance synthesizers that never quits. Bluebrain hasn’t yet quite mastered the art of the pop hook like band they are most often compared to, MGMT. But, for being so young and so new, to be that far along on the path of mastering the technical aspects of creating hit records is more than commendable.

Opening DJs Empath from BYT’s ridiculously entertaining Summer Camp Series as well as sprightly punk pixie Molly Siegel of Bmore’s fantastic Ponytail did an acceptable job of setting the table. Siegel represented her hometown well, dropping Jimmy Jones’ legendary “Watch Out for the Big Girl” and Scottie B’s “Gimme Sum Head,” along with some harder edged breaks and dubstep, while Empath slayed with a set of electro and house remixes. Club music, with its bass, percussion and heavy breaks based style sounds particularly strong on the U-Hall’s 40,000 watt system and was a surprising yet welcomed asset to the set.

Overall, the event was a success. Bluebrain are more than worthy of their praise as of late, and while slightly daunted by a sound system that can more adequately deal with but is not fully yet aware of how to handle such a diverse blend of expressive musical devices, succeeded. Any night that ends with a crowd of happy people dancing while waving around glowing necklaces and bracelets and raving the night away abuzz over the band they just saw is a sign for me of a job well done.

PEACHES/MEN/PONYTAIL @ SONAR – 11/12/09

Toronto, Ontario’s Peaches, by virtue of constantly setting forward the concept of exactly what a musical heroine can be, has ascended into the realm of stardom and legend. An underground stalwart for so many years, if we look at the visual portrait of mainstream female musical success, in 2009 Peaches is often imitated, but after watching her performance on November 12th at Sonar for the renowned TaxLo dance party, there literally is no duplication.

There were the pre-requisite 15 + costume changes. There was her outfit involving a glowing orb-like structure apparently attached to her vagina. There was her attempt at playing a flourescent light saber like a guitar, and alternating with also flailing it about like an enormous glowing penis. She also crowd surfed while standing, literally depending on her throng of loyal fans to keep her standing upright, a middle school trust activity gone surprisingly right. But it’s not so much in the chicanery as it is in her commitment to the entertainment that makes her a success. For two hours, Peaches experiences music and throws that energy, once flowed through her, back to the audience. Far more than any recitation of lyrics or earnest attention being paid to instrumentation, you watch Peaches to a) feel completely at home at her show, and b) watch Peaches. Far more important than creating songs like “Fuck the Pain Away,” “Fatherfucker,” and “Shake Your Dix” are to Peaches’ iconic status in the gay, lesbian and alternative music communities, its in her willingness to exist as a performance art piece committed to the freedom of expression that makes her status what it is. On this night, the connection and sheer admiration of the entire venue was unquestioned.

Openers Ponytail, Baltimore’s present darlings of the blogosphere gave a solid accounting of themselves in an opening set. Lead singer Molly Siegel is a cherubic faced youngster with energy to burn. She sings with the glee that all young lead singers in rock bands should, feeling as though she’s achieved a life goal by being allowed to sing her band’s songs onstage in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. Ponytail’s brand of sugar jolt rock, replete with thrashing drums and rapid fire guitars is not reinventing the wheel, but, they play with force, velocity, hope and talent. Force and velocity to aim towards so many art house punk bands that influence them, hope that the crowd really likes their sound, and talent for days, as in this particular genre and style of rock, they are clearly at the top of the line.

MEN, featuring Le Tigre’s composed and vitriolic JD Samson as lead, hit the stage next with a set of fun electro rock that won over the TaxLo crowd with its messages of free love, gay love, and, yes, free gay love. Samson, who is familiar with headliner Peaches from touring with her backing band before the present Sweet Machine, The Herms, is a feminist electropop firebrand. The set was rife with political messages, from members of Ponytail holding ten foot tall fists with forearms in the air that had “BOOM” inscribed on the forearms, for “Boom Boom” a track clearly describing the nature of protesting for equality. As well, at various other points, banners inscribed with “Silence = Death,” and fingers, well, aligned in a manner that someone would digitally copulate with a partner inscribed with “Fuck The Best” and “Fuck Your Friends” moving in an intentionally suggestive manner back and forth, advocating freedom from sexual compromise. If you don’t mind far left politics and gay propaganda with your pop music, definitely check the MEN remix project, as when Samson screamed “This song is about making gay fucking babies,” the crowd exploded as if watching Barack Obama proclaim “Yes we can” in 2008. Not for everyone, but at a Peaches show, possibly the perfect lead-in to her highness, the royal uberbitch leader of the alternative universe.

Peaches’ set was an homage to the power of music and suggestion. A one woman machine of sonic propulsion and physical devastation, Peaches’ entire discography, by being in play, means that you’re likely to get the most hard hitting and evocative of all musical styles at all times. Her rap duet with former Yo! Majesty emcee Shunda K, “Buck You Like a Billionaire” hits like a hurricane, as Shunda’s trademark bluntness and lesbian take on crotch grabbing Too Short pimp talk, when combined with Peaches’ up front attitude makes for a winner. Most of 2009’s incredibly fun I Feel Cream release eschews the forthright sex talk for electro explorations piloted by Simian Mobile Disco. This fits well into the show given this is a crowd perfectly okay with unusually extended sprees of groove riding, but that’s just the lettuce and tomato of the sandwich of this show. The meat comes from the thrashing punk riffs, her flirtations with industrial sounds and boom bap hip classic hip hop, and the sheer pop/rock energy of her performances.

What takes Peaches from the realm of being Madonna to the realm of aiming just a bit campier, just a bit lower, and opening a door completely wide open for the likes of Amanda Blank (who tours internationally with Peaches in 2010) and yes, on many levels even Lady Gaga, is her attention to the entertainment quotient of her show. She gets the concept of having fun. Molly Siegel, the lead of Ponytail, exclaimed in her opening set that “I can’t believe we’re opening for PEACHES!!!!!” as if her career could be done within 30 seconds of getting offstage, a career goal completed. Peaches has that effect on people. She’s recorded with pretty much anyone she’s ever wanted to based on having a persona and style so clearly her own that it takes an established artist’s creation to the next level from her just being there. Fashion wise, who wouldn’t want to copy her on some level. Every girl wants to wear the same jeans and lip gloss as the most popular girl in high school, and Peaches is that girl.

By existing in her own universe, and not compromising a thing, Peaches is one of the best to ever create and perform. Seeing her live is a joy unto itself.