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The superhyped shout-rock indie band Grouplove headlined at Bimbo’s 365 on Thursday with jangly Los Angeles group Family of the Year opening. It was very much a tale of two bands. While they both slide into the wildly inclusive classification of “indie”, the two bands couldn’t be further apart.
Family of the Year galloped through their hour-long set led by Welshman #1 and gangly-as-hell FOTY frontman, Joe “half-unbuttoned” Keefe. Trying to be a rock star Jesus? Possibly. Pulling it off? Actually to some degree, yes. Keefe exuded a quiet charisma and looked like he was enjoying himself, which did wonders for their performance.
Welshman #2 and somewhat-less-gangly drummer Sebastian “Justin Timberlake hasn’t shaved in four days” Keefe had a great energy and related amiably to the crowd in between songs. Providing stone solid backbeats throughout the entire set, Keefe stayed firmly in the pocket and effectively anchored the band.
FOTY’s stage sound was very impressive. The band was tight and the instruments were well balanced. They were, however, very reliant on multi-voice choruses. Single octave, group voice “We Are the Champions” type of stuff. While this technique is effective in small doses, it tires quickly.
“St. Croix”, off their EP of the same name, remains one of their strongest numbers. The songs is centered on the somewhat dubious refrain, “You’ll bring the ocean, I’ll bring emotion / together we’ll make a love potion”, but this hiccup fails slow the song’s glorious momentum. That being said, I found myself wanting more daring, distinctive chord changes as the show wore on. A lot of the songs started to blend together in a big relative major-minor mush. It wasn’t a problem of in-song dynamics (which were beyond reproach), just an issue of song-to-song variation.
Female keyboardist Christina “cheekbones” Schroeter is drop dead gorgeous, but could’ve moved around a little more onstage. Musically, she passed with flying colors, but she might need to start slammin’ a couple Jaeger bombs before she saunters (or staggers, depending on how many Jaeger bombs) onstage. Obviously Schoeter could be sultrily compelling in the most magnetic way; she just needs to loosen up. She was a little goofy when she talked to the crowd though, and that was good.
FOTY’s songs are fundamentally strong compositions—they make elegant use of classic pop songwriting conventions and use unique instrumentation to give their music an individualized spin. It’s very evident that most of their songs were written with just voice and a guitar and built up from there. Their live show is well constructed as well. I found that St. Croix track “6 AM” was actually stronger at Bimbo’s than it is on the record.
Family of the Year played a very strong set, especially as far as openers go. Their harmonious, neatly arranged indie sing-a-longs had a wonderful energy to them. While they might’ve fallen a little short of anthemic, they still put forth a vivacious and charming hour’s worth of material.
St. Croix - Family of the Year
Princess and the Pea (feat. Willy Mason) - FOTY
Grouplove has been riding a tidal wave of hype. Over the last couple months, their name has been everywhere for some reason. Pitchfork hasn’t picked up on them yet, but SPIN ran a full-page article on them in their November issue and it’s only a matter of time. The Los Angeles quintet met at an artist colony in Greece a couple years ago. An EP and a full-length later, they’ve toured with Florence and the Machine and played a slew of festivals around the world, including Outside Lands this past August.
Grouplove started their set with “Tongue Tied”, a shimmering, momentum-charged sonic colossus. Set the pace very effectively. My one qualm with this song has to do with Hannah Hooper’s single singsong verse. Sorry Hannah, but this is some pretty weak shit:
“One, two, three, four
Don’t leave me tongue tied
Let’s stay up all night
I’ll get real high
Slumber party, pillow fight
My eyes on your eyes
Like Peter Pan up in the sky
My best friend’s house tonight
Let’s bump the beats till beddy-bye”
Moving on. Their second song, “Lovely Cup” was also very strong. Bassist Sean Gadd was goin’ ham on his corner of the stage and the band was full of moxie. They sounded extremely punchy, partly because their kick drum was mic’d really hot. Enough to vibrate the floor. This gradually became an issue, as the kick’s repetitive pulses would occasionally threaten to drown out the vocals. Still, mostly a good balance of sound coming from the stage.
Crowd favorite “Naked Kids” was a bit too stoner-rock for my tastes, but it’s an undeniably catchy song. Drummer Ryan Rabin, despite being placed several miles away from the audience, is hugely talented. He makes unusual and exciting choices with his rhythms and his glow-in-the-dark floor tom solo towards the end of the show was a big highlight. Sean Gadd was two curly braids away from an Amish Joaquin Phoenix. I also suspect he may have been hammered as all hell. This suspicion was encouraged by the band conspicuously passing around a bottle of white wine during the introductions.
The highpoint of the show was when lead guitarist Andrew Wessen busted out the mandolin on the rollicking, irresistible “Spun”. What an amazing energy on that song. I would’ve listened to a whole set of that. They should use Wessen’s voice more often. Hooper’s backing vocals on “Spun” were also fantastic.
Now I’d like to take a moment to talk about Grouplove’s stage presence. Onstage they are nothing if not energetic, and they clearly have strong interpersonal connections with each other. When you look at their touring history, they’ve been playing shows relentlessly since mid-January. Now that’s a long goddamn time. On Thursday they looked like a band playing the first show of a tour. The energy level was high and their execution was impeccable–showing that they are indeed well-drilled veterans by this point. For all the negative criticisms I’m about to heap on them, you can’t deny that they’re working hard at this, and they deserve a good deal of respect for that.
Ok, on to the tough stuff.
For all their lively energy, Grouplove has a tendency to give off an aura of horrible self-satisfaction. Smugness, in a word. Something about Hooper and Zucconi’s relentless cavorting and head banging seems terribly contrived. They look like they’re trying too hard. An atmosphere of overconfidence radiated from them throughout the set. Nearly to the point of hostility. When I see Fleet Foxes, I’m rooting for Robin Pecknold. Vampire Weekend, I would hang out with them after the show in a heartbeat. Not Grouplove.
My other misgiving with Grouplove has to do with their lyrics. “Love will always save your soul” is, to be honest, a pretty meaningless refrain. It’s made all the worse when it’s repeated ad nauseum for five fucking minutes. These sort of hippy-rock platitudes have been ‘round the houses far too many times and have lost all purpose by now. Rhymes like “And it’s your time to shine / So what you’re gonna go and leave behind” really aren’t saying all that much. Vague existential musings are a songwriter’s bane. Don’t know why I didn’t pick up on this while listening to their studio work, but it was often a glaring weak spot in their set.
While lead singer Christian Zucconi’s musical abilities are more than adequate, his voice also has a tendency to sound incredibly abrasive. It can be immaculate and terrifically compelling when he doesn’t let loose into the microphone like a hyena frantically devouring a corpse, but sadly these savage moments are far too frequent. I’ll take this opportunity to say that soulfully screaming into the microphone feels a little pointless after the 27th time. Looking at you, Christian.
That being said, one of the best moments of the show was near the end of their set when they brought on a backlit, transparent canvas and Hooper drew a mural from the other side in runny blue ink to a brooding musical accompaniment. Innovative, unexpected and wholly unique. Sadly, these qualities were precisely what their lyrics frequently lacked.
Grouplove started off with their strongest, most buoyant songs, but were eventually betrayed by poor lyrical choices and their struggle to connect with the crowd. Fantastic, stuck-in-your-head melodies with less than spectacular refrains seemed to be a recurring theme. They’re clearly passionate about their music, but they failed to let their creative vision rub off on their audience. Unfortunately for Grouplove, sheer, unbridled enthusiasm does not a good band make. I wish it did.
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