Don't Do It attended the Xiu Xiu gig at the University of London Union last night, hosted by Upset the Rhythm, with support from Soiled Mattress & The Springs, Telepathe and Chris Garneau. Here's how it went down:
A little before 8pm NY brio Soiled Mattress & The Springs, consisting of one sax player, a keyboard player and a drummer, took to the stage with their kinetic intrumental jazz pop, sax player Matthew Thurber diving into the audience during songs, and making jokes between them. Their set was enjoyable, but ultimately their music lacked any distinctive qualities to make it worth recommending.
The next band, another trio from NY, called Telepathe, made a much bigger impression. Lead singer Melissa Lidaudais strides across the stage with confidence, warning the audience of the coming bass assault. She triggers a thundering sequence through her sampler, percussionist Busy Gagnes providing extra beats and guitarist Ryan Lucero layering in atmospheric drones with his reverb-soaked guitar, over which Lidaudais begins to half speak/half sing over, teetering on the edge of the stage in a trance. The band's set mixed elements of hip hop with the occassional pop melody to great success, and left us eager to hear their upcoming Dave Sitek-produced debut album Dance Mother.
With minimal change-over times we finally arrived at the last support act, Chris Garneau, performing solo. Unfortunately the excitement built up thus far was deflated by Garneau's dreary love songs, almost all of which were addressed to an un-named "you", either saying goodbye or professing a regret for leaving. Though the man is blessed with a stunning and emotive voice, his songwriting is highly repetitive and banal. One suspects he may have been selected to boost the impact of Xiu Xiu's set...
...which was simply incredible. The current incarnation of the band includes, aside from primary songwriter and composer Jamie Stewart, Stewart's multi-instrumentalist cousin Caralee McElroy, drummer Ches Smith and bassist Devin Hoff, all of whom performed on every song of the night. A number of tracks from latest album Women As Lovers were played, including I Do What I Want, No Friend OH!, F.T.W. and Master of the Bump, and they all came to life spectacularly, and more often than not revealed elements that one might have not noticed on record. The songs were generally more aggresive, employing more striking elements of metal and noise, even on previously intimate and subdued songs such as Master of the Bump, which have been re-worked and mutated. Old favourites such as Clowne Towne and A Clover mixed well into the set under this new aesthetic, which lent every track a new unpredictability and energy. Despite the confrontational aspect of the music, moments of intimacy and tenderness, as well as quiet foreboding, were given plenty of space to breathe, and were as affecting as ever. The audience remained eerily silent throughout the whole set, apart from cheering and applauding between songs, and Stewart hardly spoke. The tension was palpable. Despite a good ten minutes of cheers for an encore the band did not reappear, not surprising; Stewart is hardly one to give in to convention or expectations.
Soiled Mattress & The Springs - Tidal Wave
Telepathe - Chrome It
Chris Garneau - Black and Blue
Xiu Xiu - I Do What I Want When I Want
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