hearsay

Thu: Silversun Pickups
Fri: DeVotchKa
Mon: French Kicks

I’m almost embarassed to have basically rented a space on the floor at The Truobadour this past weekend. But really, there was a long lull without many decent shows, so it was a nice change of pace to have so many to go to. The Troubadour is without a doubt my favorite venue in L.A. (though Hotel Cafe was a pretty nice intimate spot), so of all places, I’m glad that they have stepped up their schedule. The sound is consistantly good, but I feel like they may have updated their lighting system, because it seemed noticeably good (2 of the bands commented as much), and there is now, regretably, a smelly and annoying smoke machine.

Thankfully I’ve written a bunch about all three bands, because I don’t really have the energy to go on to much about any of them. All of the shows were good, although the DeVotchKa and French Kicks shows stood out. Silversun Pickups were solid, but I’ve seen them many times by now, and despite adding a few songs from the new album, there really wasn’t that much there that was any different. The crowd was as appreciative as ever, albeit larger than previous shows, and it seemed like the love was starting to go to Brian’s head. While he basked in the joy, I wished they would add a cover or unreleased song to the set just to spice it up. Thankfully they ended with The Movies‘ “Creation Lake,” because it was nice to hear Nikki on vocals for a change.

The DeVotchKa show was by far the most theatrical. The whole venue had a warm feel to it, probably inspired by lead singer, Nick Urata’s heartfelt delivery, coupled with him continually raising of a wine bottle to the crowd and ’salud-ing’ us. There were even a couple songs when the crowd got really into it, howling along to the lyrics, in a moment that reminded me of the first few Arcade Fire shows I went to. They played most of my favorite songs, including the heart-stopping Souxsie & The Banshees cover from the new EP and “Til The End Of Time” from Little Miss Sunshine. “How It Ends” was of course the crowd favorite, and I was told by a non-first timer that it was a rare occassion that they used the same organ intro that is heard on the album. Right about then was when my heart started back up. I still can’t believe he finished the entire bottle during their set.

And then French Kicks… The new lineup is tight. They did a great, energetic set of songs, mostly from the new album and Trial of the Century. I was a little worried they might get a lukewarm response from the L.A. crowd, but that was far from the case. It must have sold out because it was packed with people jumping around, dancing & screaming along to the songs. It should be mentioned that Matt & Kim opened and were fucking great. Totally energetic, totally having fun, and totally in love. They were adorable. We were hoping the French Kicks might resurrect “Crying Just For Show,” but settled for “Wrong Side” late in the set. I would have even stayed for a second encore.

[more on the DeVotchKa show here and here, and on SSPU here]

: DeVotchKa - The Last Beat of My Heart :
: Mat & Kim - Yea Yeah :
: French Kicks - Wrong Side :