| 04/05/01 Troubadour, Hollywood, CA |
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w/ Pushover, Psoma |
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[notes] Weezer Tribute CD show. |
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[review] from wake-zine.com The Space Heater Effect : by Lindsay Mancha Blake’s charge to The Troubadour authorities-that-be isn’t an "I’m-in-a-band, give –me-my-way" tantrum. The members of L.A. pop band Rilo Kiley later explain that they just want to be telling the honest-to-goodness truth. "The important thing to us is to keep our word to our fans and play the amount of time that we advertise we are going to play…there is no reason anyone should have to pay eight dollars for a half-hour of music. If Fugazi can do an hour and a half for five bucks, we want to at least be able to do forty-five minutes for eight." On this night, The Troubadour is host to a "Weezer Tribute Show," featuring L.A. bands Pushover, Psoma, and now Rilo Kiley, who have been playing a well-rounded set to enthusiastic devoties. The kind that hoard a geek-rock abundance in the form of Ben Folds Five and They Might be Giants. The extrovert audience, that are indeed the most vocal in expressing their adoration. And Rilo Kiley deserves this. Songwriters Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett have bear-hugged their fans through the eleven-song, heartfelt pop progressive Take Offs and Landings. This album, released last month on the band’s own Rilo Records, possesses a certain tender sincerity, primarily resident in Lewis’ girlish strong-soft vocals, and has a distinctive down-home flavor- a kind of acoustic/electric back-porch sing along (the back-porch of your favorite L.A. dig, in this case.) And while Lewis, Sennett, bassist Pierre de Reeder and drummer Dave Rock sound good on record, they’re even better live. Rilo Kiley play as well as The Promise Ring and Imperial Teen, which are pretty damn good. At their shows, the concert-goer bears witness to an unreal energy and they are prey to the band’s magnetic draw. Rilo Kiley are additionally magnetic, in that almost every song off Take Offs builds like some good drama, culminating in a climax of heart-cry. In striving for a universal quality, they achieve it through writing songs with relative themes. How many college students’ subconscious cry resonates on "Plane Crash in C": "I have no idea what’s been going on lately and I wish that you would just come over and explain things?" And how many of us kick ourselves for laughing at the jokes made by laughing at jokes made by the person that won’t return our love? However, the numbers that are down n’ out on the surface are much more than depressants. Really, "Pictures of Success" and "Wires and Waves" produce little rushes of endorphin. Ultimately, there is hopefulness in Rilo Kiley’s art. They concede to this, in saying, "humanity is tired of being sad without a solution…[our band] tries to keep from being resigned to sorrow. We sort of feel like, ‘Okay, so it may be as cold as fuck in here, but at least we have this space heater. Let’s crowd around it.’" Their ‘picture of success’ is "connecting with as many people as possible." While this may be the indie band, pro-people cliché, Rilo Kiley back up their words with action, and their songs are the action. They have their share of "Lean on Me’s", like "Don’t Deconstruct:" "Don’t deconstruct then fill me in/ I’m not that basic, I swear." Here is a guarantee that this band can go deep, that they can handle the grim reality. Realism, Rilo Kiley style: "If you live, you get disappointed sometimes- but that doesn’t mean you stop living." This is just as well said through their music.
[another review] The show was excellent, as usual. The set was as follows-- |