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Live Review: Lykke Li with Friendly Fires at The El Rey Theatre

Published

Truffle Jones

on November 7, 2008

in General, Listings, Performance, Reviews and Truffle Jones

. 0 Comments

November 3, 2008

When Swedish songstress Lykke Li played an in-store set at Amoeba Records a few months ago, it was hard to ignore the fact that the live presentation bore little in common with her songs as they exist on her current release, Youth Novels. Where that album paints her in an overproduced sheen — complete with an electronic bias – the Amoeba show saw her in a vulnerable, organic state. Perhaps it was the bustle of the patrons and employees that were paying her no heed or the under-a-microscope daylight setting, but that performance was particularly spare, with her vocals soaked in reverb as if to mask any fragility the environment might have betrayed. Regardless, the show was endearing and lovely, rendering the album almost unlistenable in comparison. To be sure, for the few that were there, seeing that event was to witness something special, as she and her band created an artful halo in an intimidating, odds-against environment.

Lykk it up: Lykke Li on stage with Friendly Fires at the El Rey. (photo by the author)

Returning to Los Angeles to headline a sold-out El Rey Theatre, Lykke Li improbably topped that Amoeba experience last night. Taking the stage in front of a simple black backdrop which boldly proclaimed her name in white letters, she set the mood with “Dance, Dance, Dance” — a goosebumps-producing number at the in-store — and instantly took the crowd captive.

With fire in her belly, she toured the bulk of her album with refined delivery and interpretation. Gone were the reverb-sauced vocals, and her backing trio of cute indie rock boys, tighter now than newly minted Velcro, provided choir-like vocals and an onslaught of pulsating, dance-insistent beats with minimal electronic manipulation. Fully invested in her performance, it was clear each syllable that left Lykke Li’s mouth was emphatically backed by every fiber of her being. Magnetic on stage, her movements were at times spastic and reminiscent of the African Anteater Ritual from the 1987 Patrick Dempsy teen vehicle Can’t Buy Me Love (when she wasn’t busy beating the hell out of a cymbal, tambourine or harnessing a kazoo or megaphone). While that might invite unkind commentary toward anyone less sincere (and sexy), with Lykke Li, it’s not so much that she “pulls it off” as it is just part of who she is – and to have it any other way would be criminal.

Surprise covers of Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” Wendy Rene’s “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” and a jam with openers Friendly Fires helped buttress her limited catalogue, but in no way overshadowed stalwart renditions of her own “I’m Good, I’m Gone,” “Hanging High” and “Breaking It Up.”

Limited edition Lykke Li show poster art from Los Angeles' Two Rabbits.

Amping things up with a journey through A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” to close her encore, Lykke Li caught the audience off-guard by asking them for some call-and-response. “Can I get an ‘O?’” she started, to which the puzzled crowd responded weakly. Four letters later, she had to sum it up herself: “Obama,” she stated simply, then escaped to the wings of the stage amidst cheers of approval. A far cry from her Amoeba performance, which she ended by imploring “buy my record…I need new shoes.”

As Lykke Li’s lead-ins, Friendly Fires positively erupted on stage like south-of-the-border firecrackers, laying claim to the house with virus-like accelerated disco beats and lots of cowbell. Coming on visually like a short-bus fistfight between Mick Jagger and Ian Curtis, frontman Ed Macfarlane made an irresistible master of ceremonies. With a hellacious set couched somewhere between the dance haven of LCD Soundsystem and the affable effectiveness of Franz Ferdinand — with bits of New Order and polyrhythmic space junk thrown in — Friendly Fires instantly made their remaining L.A. performances this week mandatory.

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Live Review: Shudder To Think at the El Rey Theatre

Published

Truffle Jones

on November 6, 2008

in General, Performance, Reviews and Truffle Jones

. 0 Comments

November 1, 2008

Listening to Shudder To Think is a lot like doing trigonometry – you know it all makes sense somehow, but damned if you can figure it out. Full of obtuse angles but wrought with plenty of accessible melodic avenues, their music is one of the more love-it-or-hate-it propositions to have ever wound up on a major label. The latest participant in a spate of 90s-era band reunions, STT brought their re-collected selves to a (surprisingly) female heavy, half-full El Rey Theatre Saturday night for a trip down a Hieronymous Bosch-like Memory Lane.

Ponies need not apply, they have the internet now: STT's Craig Wedren (photo by the author).

Without any specific new product to hawk, STT’s show focused on past triumphs, most specifically targeting their 1994 breakthrough, the be-deviling Pony Express Record. Live highlights from that album included “Hit Liquor,” “Gang of $,” “9 Fingers On You,” “No Rm. 9, Kentucky” and “X French Tee Shirt” and “Earthquakes Come Home,” which singer/guitarist Craig Wedren, a recent L.A. transplant, seemed especially proud to introduce, having experienced his first rumbler just a few months ago. Despite the Pony-heavy set, they found time to touch on selections from their other albums as well, most notably “Rag” from 1990’s Ten Spot and “Pebbles” from 1992’s Get Your Goat.

Though they gave The People everything they could have asked for and more from an STT show a decade and change after the fact, something was lacking from their performance. Maybe it was because they’re older and wiser and less pissed off, but while they had no problem navigating the House Of Leaves-like corridors of their frequently complex music, an expected razor-like execution seemed to be missing throughout.

Wedren kept the night friendly with lots of comedic patter between songs, creating contrast to the noisy and often dark material the band played. “You guys know the song ‘Chocolate?’” he asked the crowd of a selection from 1991’s Funeral At The Movies. “This is our version of that song – by us.”

It’s likely that had they chosen a more user-friendly manifestation of their music, Wedren and STT guitarist Nathan Larson would have risen above the ranks of their 90s-rock peers to some sort of iconic hero status. Despite the years, Wedren’s unique voice continues to impress and guitarist Nathan Larson’s unusual guitar passages seem as fresh and inventive as they did in the Days Of Flannel. But STT’s choice in art limited their popular appeal. Not accessible enough to be Pearl Jam and not disturbing enough to be Tool, they relegated themselves to becoming a marginally remembered outfit, loved most by a minority of obsessives.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Live Review: Leona Naess at The Wiltern

Published

Truffle Jones

on November 6, 2008

in General, Performance, Reviews and Truffle Jones

. 0 Comments

October 30, 2008

Poor Leona Naess. Despite having paid her dues and then some, the spotlight has repeatedly failed to find her. Her first album, an earnest but awkward pop-rock affair called Comatised (which features an incredibly rich song-one cut in the form of “Lazy Days”) floundered amidst major label consolidation. PR pieces repeatedly brought to light her well-to-do upbringing, which created an image of a spoiled rich girl playing at being rock star, and her participation in a Calvin Klein campaign made her all the more dismissible.

While her second album, I Tried To Rock You But You Only Roll was a step forward, she shortly became better known as Ryan Adams’ paramour instead. Her self-titled follow up showed her finding her voice in both a figurative and literal sense as some of the overproduced pop trappings were shorn from her material, and now finally, with the release of her latest record, Thirteens, it’s possible Naess might finally get her due.

A fine Naess: Leona Naess in all her pixelated glory (photo by the author).

Opening for Ray LaMontagne at the Wiltern last Thursday, Naess had the difficult task of playing to his rabid audience. She was clearly a relative unknown to most of them; as the house lights came down and she took the stage, there were more naked seats than full in the room. Slowly but surely, however, she charmed the growing crowd with shy interactions and a large, confident voice that belied the body from which it originated. Playing primarily from her new album, which she’s referred to as the first phase of her second career, she demonstrated repeatedly just why it is she belongs in music, particularly with a rendition of her current single, “Heavy Like Sunday.” Accompanied by various instrumentalists throughout her set, her songs were consistently sublimated with subdued accents, none of which ever overpowered the simplicity of the girl with the guitar. The only speedbump was a sidetrack through “Leave Your Boyfriend Behind” — an infectious iTunes-only bonus track that very easily belongs on the proper release of Thirteens. Live however, it came off as a bit of a trainwreck, incongruous with her other performances.

If there was any doubt about the impression she made on the Wiltern during her short time on stage, by set’s end Naess had coaxed an impressive amount accompaniment from the audience in the form of time-keeping hand claps that threatened to drown out her own playing. In a crowded chick-with-guitar singer/songwriter Grey’s Anatomy milieu, Leona Naess has had the rare and hard-won opportunity to develop of the course of four albums. Judging by her performance here, she’s made the most of this gift, plotting a course with her talents that should set her, finally, far ahead of the pack.