Kitten of Doom

Gosh darn I love a good solid band lineup.

Made my way down to the Workers’ Club on Brunswick St last night to see Planet Love Sound, Northeast Party House and Tehachapi.  Beer; music; cool times.  $5 entry – this works out to $1.66 each for PLS and Northeast Party House, and $1.68 for Tehachapi (they are two cents more as they were the headliners).  So much quality music for such little money.

I meant to take a photo or two for this post since I didn’t for the last one about PLS, but goddayum I’m lazy and useless sometimes.

The best thing about this gig was that the three bands fit so well together, despite each of them sounding quite different from one another.  Constantine was right when he commented on my last PLS post that PLS and Tehachapi are complementing sounds; NPH were the perfect bridge between them too.

P L S

Now probably isn’t the best time to admit this, but I need to clear my conscience at some stage, so I may as well do it now – in the 4+ years that I have been listening to their music,  I never once made it to a Dukes of Windsor gig.  Yeah see told you I was pretty useless.  I blame this largely on the fact that I was always working nights and weekends in hospitality, and thus was out of the live gig loop for a couple of years.  Then they moved to Berlin, and I haven’t been able to sleep since due to the guilt (presumably; it could be due more to the amount of caffeine I drink though).  But I found out about PLS through the Dukes’ facebook page, and in the few weeks since doing so, have already seen them twice.  And will probably see them once or twice more before they go back to the land of beer steins and bratwurst.  So I kinda feel like a bad person.  Does this make me a bad person..? 😦  Anyway this really has nothing to do with last night’s gig.  Various things that do have to do with last night’s gig are:  I really, really, really like the layered vocals.  I noticed this more last night than I did at the Penny Black show.  I like their balance of guitars and programmed beats.  They have more of a folk-y sound than dancey (such as Northeast Party House, for example, who are more dancey) whilst still being largely guitar-driven.  Mind you, when I told Leon about the gig in the afternoon he was convinced they were an electro outfit due to their name, probably because the last gig I took him to was Love Connections, and they are pretty electro.  PLS songs are catchy, but deceptively catchy; the catchiness creeps up on you until all of a sudden you realise you can’t get those songs out of your head.  Looking forward to the debut album!

Northeast Party House

To be honest, after PLS played I was pretty damn hungry and a bit tipsy* by that stage (not to mention standing around by myself in the middle of the room… nigel-no-friends much..?) and very nearly did an expedition to Smith St Maccas before Tehachapi started playing.  Glad I didn’t, as I got to witness a collective of crazy cats called Northeast Party House get everyone in the front of the room jumping around (and really, what can a cheeseburger meal do for me that a big bag of Doritos on the way home can’t?)  Their sound is large, atmospheric; a bit dancey but still with that live-band vibe.  “Dance band”..?  Can you have a dance band?  I guess so.  They sure did pick up the crowd’s energy, and seem to be rather aptly named. I get the feeling that they are the sort of band where anything could happen at one of their gigs, and I can’t wait to find out what.  More please!

Tehachapi

I’m a fan of atmospheric, dramatic music; preferably with some nice big guitar riffs thrown in here and there.  Epic soundscapes for the win; yeah!  Tehachapi’s set was like one big long epic soundscape.  There were softer moments to break up the big guitar sound, and I love the way Constantine’s and Laura’s vocals contrast, but are complementary to each other.  Their vocals are quite haunting.  There is a lot of emotion put into their playing.  I’m also really impressed by people who can play drums that energetically and sing at the same time and still sound great.  There are long stretches where their playing is devoid of vocals; this reminds me a bit of This Will Destroy You (the Tehachapi track Stars Are Dying is probably a notable example of this comparison).  I’d already listened to their album a bit previously, but seeing a band live is usually quite different to listening to their recorded material (unless of course you are The Killers and you just come out on stage and play like you’re playing your cd), and in the case of Tehachapi, the live show was considerably more intense and emotional.  And they had a smoke machine.  And you can’t get that listening to iTunes.

x Kitten of Doom

* I blame this minor detail on the fact I went to a certain Fitzroy pub in the afternoon to pick up my pay, and the other staff who were there made me drink two pints before I left.  They FORCED me.  True story.  Then at the Workers Club the dude behind the bar FORCED me to keep drinking beer.  Also a true story.  I’m not making either of these statements up.

~ by Kitten of Doom on January 28, 2011.

Posted in Fitzroy/Fitzroy North, Muzak
Tags: Melbourne, Northeast Party House, Planet Love Sound, Tehachapi, Workers Club