On the Saturday after the 4th of July, San Francisco band Girls played a release show for their new seven inch "Lust For Life". They were backed by LA band Soft Boiled Eggies, and played the show to a packed house of eager listeners and (unfortunately) apparent "groupies" from a hastily constructed "scene".
Soft Boiled Eggies opened the show with a decent dose of droney synth pop. While it didn't do anything to grab us, it didn't do anything to offend our ears either. The video backdrops did a good job at setting the stage vibe, and the band was on top of things technically.
Girls followed up with the headlining set for the launch of their seven inch. Figuring out what that means to us is still difficult even now, a week later. Let's start out with the good: The band played a tight set to an adoring crowd. The instrumentation was great, frontman Christopher Owens' voice was in good shape, and despite the addition of new band members everything seemed to fall into place. We stand behind Girls as one of our local picks: mark our words, these guys are going somewhere.
Now, here's the other side of the coin: the band appears to have signed on to be a part of some sort of manufactured "scene". "Their guy" took over from the Utah sound guy (always a bad sign), there were scores of pushy girls up front, and moreover despite it being a release show, no one seemed to be able to sell us a slab of vinyl. Now, we know bands just starting out need to be given there fair share of leeway, but come on guys - get it together....please?
Girls' next San Francisco show is at Cafe Du Nord on August 27th.
More pics over at the H.A.D. Archive.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Girls Played Hotel Utah
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2 comments:
You said: "'Their guy' took over from the Utah sound guy (always a bad sign)..."
Huh?
A lot of great bands that just want things to sound right have their own sound guy. Some even tour with their own sound guy. There's a reason John Vanderslice's house mixes always sound great, for instance.
I've seen shows where all the bands sounded flat except for the one band that brought their sound guy. There's nothing wrong with know how you want your band to sound and getting it.
But not having your release for sale at your release show? That's crap.
Hmmm...I guess you're right in some cases. In this case it seemed more like they "had a guy" just to "have a guy". It sounded not so great for the Utah - and that room has the potential to sound good.
Agreed: I'm still irked that I couldn't get the vinyl. I love the tune!
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