By: Pat O'Brien
“Shut up, Jim.” The crowd at The 400 heard that approximately a dozen times from the stage during The Envy Corps’ set on Friday night. They drove up from Ames, Iowa through a snowstorm, with a lot of fans in tow, it seemed. They were cheering, whooping and one fan (the aforementioned Jim) was particularly boisterous in his praise, which they seemed used to dealing with, but were maybe a tad embarrassed by given that they were from out of town.
They had nothing to be ashamed of, however; they sounded like they had lifted everything stellar from The Bends-era Radiohead, including Thom Yorke’s vocals, which lead singer/guitarist Luke Pettipoole mimicked quite well minus some of Yorke’s vocal elasticity. They threw in a shot of Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American to take the drone out and added spiky sludge from wicked bassist David Yoshimura, who seemed to have taken a lot of inspiration from Metallica’s Cliff Burton. It was potent and stirring with a bittersweet pop sheen that was endearing rather than off-putting. They quickly won over many of the non-Iowans in attendance – the space directly in front of the stage was packed by the third song. They did have a fairly major technical problem a few songs in, as Pettipoole’s guitar conked out about halfway through their fourth or fifth song, and while he did get visibly flustered, he made a quick change to a different guitar and the set sailed pretty smoothly from there.
When an opening band has this kind of power over the crowd, what’s next?
You know how if you let an ice cream sundae melt in the bowl, it still tastes just as good even though the texture has completely changed? Well, that’s the impression SKIRT left. I had tasted this before but this was not quite the texture I was accustomed to. Now, the sundae analogy is no accident, they were a mix of a lot of different ideas and flavors that came streaming out as beautiful, glammy, keyboard-driven power pop. Or is it power-poppy glam? Therein was the draw. It was sort of uncategorizable unless you really wanted to work hard at it. It was easier to simply listen and maybe attempt a dance move or two if you felt up to it.
Drummer Michelle Roche absolutely assaulted her Alex Van Halen-sized drum kit (and singer/keyboardist Linnea Mohn’s backside on one occasion) with her drumsticks, standing up throughout the set, while Mohn and singer/guitarist Scott Hefte traded lead and backing vocals. It all came together as a slightly more avant garde and less goofy version of Luscious Jackson, which was also sort of an uncategorizable band for a few good years there. SKIRT is a side project for it’s members (Mohn is in Coach Said Not To, Hefte is in Seymore Saves The World and Superdanger, and Roche is part of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra) but, like all good side projects, nothing felt tossed off or forced. It was as if a few well-timed delicious bursts of solid inspiration spilled from the stage at precisely the right moment to hold everyone’s attention and stop them from exiting into the blustery tundra to smoke cigarettes.
Someone finally got it right. Actually, four someones who are known as The Glad Version. In the past few years I have heard countless bands who have very obviously been influenced by Death Cab For Cutie but come off more as poor facsimiles than anything else. These boys probably listened to The Photo Album and wondered why girls didn’t like them the way they wanted to be liked, too, but they aren’t whining about it. They’re just living better. Lead singer Adam Svec’s lyrics were earnest and heartfelt but weren’t bursting at the seams with emotion or slathered in cheese. There is something to be said for restraint and getting your point across with an economy of words rather than wearing your emotions on your one-size-too-small sleeve or wrapping yourself in a damp cloak of misery, then whining about being miserable and wet (I’m looking at you, Conor Oberst). It seemed that they understood that what they felt isn’t unique, it’s part of the human condition, and Friday night they managed to tell stories about it a little better than most. The tone reminded me a lot of the manner in which Cursive’s Tim Kasher spins a tale, and while I was a little worried that it was going to remind me too much of a few different bands, it simply was what it was. Perfectly-crafted powerpop with a little bit of wistful yearning, and we could hardly want for anything more than we were given.
Photo of SKIRT taken from their MySpace page.
Location Info:
400 Bar
Artist Info: SKIRT, The Envy Corps, The Glad Version
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