Mark Ritesma of Battle Royale made me happy even before they started. As they took the stage at the 7th Street Entry- to be more precise, as they took a the third of the stage not covered by Yeasayer’s gear- Ritesma soundchecked his keyboard with the opening riff of “Jellybones”, a wonderful pop gem from The Unicorns. The Unicorns are no more, alas, but Battle Royale is here and that’s better than a consolation prize.
Battle Royale - Photo by Stacy Schwartz
Battle Royale are know around town for their dancy pop and for an infectous, near-geeky exuberance. It is a reputation well deserved and did not let them down in front of the sold-out crowd. Playing tunes from both Sparkledust Fantasy and Wake Up,Thunderbabe, Sam Robertson pounded away at his keyboard and Grace Fiddler had a blast with her bass over the programmed loops as they band shared vocals. They kept each song together and shook the stage, although the limited space constrained some of Ritesma’s dancing to some abortive Napoleon Dynamite impressions. A new (“new new new”) song clocked in at about 1:45, a terrific length for a dance explosion.
Part of the reason Battle Royale is so enjoyable is their dexterity at building upon the fundamentals of guitar, keys and bass and earnestly layering it with other sounds. The split nature of their recent WakeUp,Thunderbabe release, switching from the synthy stage show to a folk sound especially manifests onstage in John Pelant’s guitars and vocals. Much as folk and psychadelia took what was available to them and built upon it to make it their own, Battle Royale take all of what is available to them and use it. Call it indie-disco, call it avant-folk, call it good and dance.
Battle Royale were a perfect lead in for Yeasayer, so much so that I wish they were on tour together. Even though the bassist Ian Wolf Tuton came out with his flowing hair in a side pony and with a veritable porn ‘stache, Culture Bully turned to me and said, “There’s nothing ironic about that.” And he was right. Yeasayer pulled earnestly from music all around the world- African drums, pan flutes, Spanish guitars- to mesh looping samples with throbbing bass and perfectly timed live drums. Guitarist Anand Wilder topped it off with tight-wound Santana-like licks to build a rainforest of sound.
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| Yeasayer - Photo by Schwartz |
And then there was MGMT. Go burn a copy of the single, “Time to Pretend” so that you can say you had it when it pops up on VH1’s I Love the Zeros. In fact, you may want to find the full release, Oracular Spectacular, to get a full sense of the let-down of the show.
Oracular Spectacular is a wonderfully zany disc full of proggy keys and sly rock-and-rollisms. None of that came across Thursday night, as MGMT’s touring band added on drums, an extra guitar and a bass player to lead singer/guitarist/drummer Andrew Vanwyngarden and keys player Ben Goldwasser. The stage sound opted for a wall of noise that lost any of the clarity and verve of the recording. “Time to Pretend” lost all of its choppy insouciance. The chorus, “We’re fated to pretend, we’re fated to pretend” never sounded so ominous, nor so pathetic.
Songs stretched forever, washed out in crash cymbals and overdrive. After the composure of Yeasayer and the energy of Battle Royale, MGMT brought nothing to the stage. They may as well have been in their parent’s garage trying to cover “Dark Side of the Moon”. After some bad karaoke on “Kids,” beer throwing and failed attempts to hit on girls in the audience, MGMT left the stage and ended the misery.
Vanwyngarden, referring to his enormous plastic marijuana pendant, mumbled between songs, “What is this? It’s like a baby with a handgun. You don’t support that.” ‘Nuff said. Outside, the consensus was, “Yeah, Yeasayer were great.”
Location Info:
7th Street Entry
Artist Info: Battle Royale, MGMT, Yeasayer
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