Last night I volunteered to be designated driver and hopped in the car with a moderately-sized crew. We were heading down to Studio A in Miami, home to overpriced drinks, beautiful hipster-chicks and dudes in over-ironic t-shirts aching to be noticed (some crew members included).
Why would we head into the god-forsaken 305 on a Monday night? It had to be a good reason to get me off of my couch on a Monday; so it had to be a great reason to get me to drive down to Miami in the rain on a Monday, the night before my weekly longest day ever (I have HUGE meetings on almost every Tuesday).
This was a good reason, New York avant rock (or if you want to be genre-specific, math rock) group Battles' first show in South Florida, and I was gonna see it. I first heard of the group a few months back when they announced that their first full-length LP,
Mirrored, was going to be released on
Warp Records. I found some of their tunes online and was immediately floored. The intricate layering of manipulated sound left me wondering "how did they do that?" and the driving oh-so-hard drum beats rattled my brain and made my neck cramp in anticipation of some serious head-banging.
I did a little bit of research and discovered that Battles were a super group, of sorts. I could go into the detailed back story of the group and its' members, but I think that this video will do much better justice as an introduction:
Suffice it to say that all four members are virtuosos in their own right, both technically in how they play their instruments, but also creatively, in the type of music they write. I've listened to a lot of music, and I've never heard anything like Battles before.
Anyway, back to the review.
After taking some half-baked advice on getting to the venue and getting lost in the ghetto twice and spit back onto the highway once, we made it to the venue as the final opening band was setting up their gear on stage. They're called (according to the same person who gave me the above mentioned directions)
John Hancock and the Founding Fathers, and 'id give you a link to their site but I can't find out anything about them. They were actually pretty good, with a sound ranging from ! ! ! -esque dance punk to a more 80s new wave/pop sound. Their outfits had an unexplained jungle theme to them, and they all wore face paint for no good reason. But they had a song with the refrain "My girl is part Italian and I am part Mongolian," and I was glad that I saw them.
After the set ended, they cleared the stage completely and the guys from Battles started setting up their gear on in the empty space. It was actually rather cool to watch as the took the black space and completely constructed their setup. The stage was bookended by two similar setups. On each side a table held a laptop computer (gloat,
Madpercolator, it was a Mac) and more effects pedals then I could count. A guitar leaned against each table. In the middle of the stage was drummer John Stanier's unmistakable yellow drumkit, complete with the high hat symbol on a stand that was about six feet tall. Behind the kit their sat various stringed instruments that would be played by Dave Konopka when the show finally began.
They came out around midnight, and we were ready. I stood about three rows back looking directly at the afroed Tyondai Braxton. When the double bass drum kicked, I did what I did at most concerts: I started dancing and dancing hard. I looked around to survey the crowd and discovered that out of the relatively meager size showing for the venue (but relatively good for a rainy Monday night) there were exactly seven people exhibiting any kind of body motion at all, and that they had either ridden in my car to get there or we met there.
Why is it that people don't dance at hipster shows? I really want to know...
The band kicked ass during their hour-and-fifteen minute set. It was pretty impressive how they would take something as simple as a guitar riff and then loop and manipulate it until it was indistinguishable from its' original form. Add to that the ability to layer on top of layer on top of layer until it sounded as if their were sound coming from a dozen different players instead of the four onstage and the brutally punishing intensity of the drums and you can imagine how intense this show was.
Battles play loud, aggressive rock and roll that is obtuse and angular in its melodies and rhythms, but at the same time danceable (to those of us who do that kind of thing, anyway). It is definitely the kind of music that not everyone can get into, but if you're into it you understand how good this band is at playing it.
My buddy Billy-B took some photos last night that I'll post up when he has a chance to send them my way.
And here they are:
Battles in motion
drummer John Stanier reaches up to hit his high hat
