Gig: Still Life Still / Dinosaur Bones / Casa Muerte

Still Life Still / Dinosaur Bones / Casa Muerte

Velvet Underground. Saturday, May 30, 2009.

With no pressing engagements on Saturday afternoon, decided on a whim to check out this Dan Burke-promoted matinée. Mostly as a second shot at a couple well-regarded bands that I had seen already but hadn't quite made up my mind over. Meant heading into the Velvet Underground, another venue that isn't usually on my list of places to visit. But an afternoon, all-ages show at least didn't bring out the spot's usual crowd, so that was okay.

Got there in time to see Casa Muerte, a young band that showed up with a half-dozen players plus a pair of dancers/percussionists. To go with the name, the band seemed to be sort of going for a Día de los Muertos look, with a couple members in face-paint skulls. The unified look was a bit undermined — the bassist, for example, was in a Godzilla t-shirt and matching make-up. At first I thought this might indicate his willingness to stomp all over the band's sound, as he was very far up in the mix throughout the set. But as things went on, I realized that the band seemed to be victims of extremely unsympathetic inattention from the soundman, so though I had some issues with the band's sound — everything muddled together with little sonic clarity — I don't think I can lay most of it at the band's feet.

What I did hear was... okay. The band seemed to be working towards classic pop tunes with slight psych-garage twist, boy-girl vox and a penchant for ba-ba-ba backing vocals. But there's a bit of the kitchen sink thrown in here as well. The vocal interplay between Ireek Sofakia and Madame Muertes (the band's best weapon) was the most interesting element. With the dancers up front, the band at least managed to keep things generally entertaining, if not, like their sound, a little too-busy.

For the first half of their set, Dinosaur Bones were plagued by similarly lousy house sound. Vocalist Ben Fox¹ sounded at the outset like he was phoning it in — quite literally — through a tinny, distant connection. And again, the bass was up in the mix and everything was EQ'd into a very narrow band. Then, during "Sharks in the Sand", it seemed as if the soundman decided to punch the clock and start twiddling knobs, as the sound suddenly and dramatically improved, finally allowing a proper appreciation of what they were up to. Just in time, too, for their no-doubt hit "NYE", which simmers with just the right amount of mid-tempo melancholy. Dino Bones are a bit too anthemic (in that British rock magazine sense) to be precisely my cup of tea, but I certainly gots respect for them.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Taking a bit of extra time after setting up for a rugby scrum-like group hug, Still Life Still at least got the benfit of "headliner sound" and were free of any technical problems. After having seen them previously, I left with no strongly fixed opinion. A second exposure didn't strongly affect me, either, perhaps shifting my opinion towards an ambivalent "meh". There are compelling elements to their sound, and one can see how they fit them into the Arts & Crafts mould, the first few songs bringing to mind Kevin Drew's solo album. But there's also something missing — both the prickly bits and that moment of sublime lift. It may just mark me as jaded, but to my ears, what A&C are pushing here is a slightly mersh version of their signature sound.

That's just me, mind you. The crowd at hand were very well into this, and came correct and prepared, clapping along to the beat in anticipation of single "Pastel", and reacting very positively throughout. The band played just under forty-five minutes, and there wasn't really any one song that strongly grabbed my attention.²

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¹ Rock t-shirt: French Kicks.

² Although one called "Neon Blue" did the trick a little bit.