Though they were not the headliner at The Echo, the night belonged to Austin, TX’s Voxtrot. Probably the most hyped band on the bill, they gathered a good and energetic crowd to see the band, whose tour coincides with the release of their second EP.
They were joined by slew of bands: Controller.Controller, We Are Wolves The Joggers, and Montreal’s Kiss Me Deadly. I really enjoyed Kiss Me Deadly, who sounded like Chin Up Chin Up sung by Out Hud, except when the guy sang, and it ventured further towards the realm of emo (maybe Mineral?). The series of upbeat “Dance” tracks were great, with this disco-like play between the bass and drums, and then layered with guitars that sounded very U2. The tempo was very energetic and, yes, danceable… particularly on “Dance 2″ towards the end of their set.
Though Voxtrot’s pop-rock tempo wasn’t as danceable, they made up for that with unabashedly nerdy energy. Lead singer, Ramesh bounced around the stage like an excited teenager rocking out alone in their bedroom. It helped to draw the crowd in though, and after they played a Talking Heads cover, “Heaven,” I realized his moves were akin to those of a young David Byrne, minus a bit of the Byrne’s smoothness. You know, I’ve been hearing a lot of Talking Heads covers recently. Well, good. They played a pretty even smattering of songs from the both EP’s. They actually played another cover, tacking on Comet Gain’s “You Can Hide Your Love Forever” to the end of “Raised by Wolves” (Gorilla vs Bear posted a live version from WOXY set here). The songs were consistantly good, but there is something really great about when the organ kicks in during the chorus and at the end of “Wrecking Force.”
I think with the new EP, they are sounding an awful lot like 2nd album Chisel (certainly much more than Morrissey this time). I would call the show a relatively packed crowd, and thankfully it was not sold-out crowded… The show had a really (really) young audience, and I’m pretty sure there were some 14-year olds out there. They closed their set with “Soft & Warm” off of the new EP, and the closing lines of “You are so young / So feel alive / And one day you will live on your own” could not have sounded more appropriate. Here’s to staying young and innocent.
: Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives :
: Kiss Me Deadly - Dance 4 :
: Kiss Me Deadly - Dance 2 :
: Talking Heads - Heaven :
if there is something that bothers me about voxtrot, its how highly articulated their music comes out at times. there is a kind of technical precision that somehow overwhelms the larger melodic ideas. was their music anymore relaxed live? brian howe over at the fork made what i think is a good observation in his review of the recent I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness release. he drew out a distinction between the playful and ironic indie rockers like Pavement and the more serious attitude of bands like Interpol and ILYBICD. voxtrot seems to elide categorization in either direction. serious in technique yet playful in attitude they are a both and, at times tending towards a certain irratating density.
i haven’t listened to kiss me deadly. reminds me a bit of drugstore. i file them under my, 2006, the return of shoegaze, post.
except that the kiss me deadly album came out last year…
is pavement any less articulate than voxtrot? i don’t think there is very much about voxtrot that falls into the so called “serious indie” category. they are a fun band, and didn’t seem pretentious at all.
you sure like to classify things.
[…] Since I mentioned Chisel the other day, I thought I might dedicate a post to them . It was wierd at the Voxtrot show to think that it’s 10 years later and I’m still listening to essentially the same sort of music. […]
[…] And then there is Voxtrot, whose sound is so warm and poppy that I can’t help but enjoy all of their stuff. They were great live, and since they pick fun songs to cover, it is really cool that they’ve posted a collection of covers on their website. […]