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I guess it’s been a while since I last posted on Metrojolt. I’m sorry. I should explain. You see, I went to see the Raveonettes, the Danish duo that is blowing up Mexican iTunes/My LIFE, in concert,. The band brings together some of post-punk’s great names. Like, not the names of great people, but names that are, on their own, really great: “Sune Rose Wagner”(a man) and “Sharin Foo” (could not tell) (just kidding she’s very pretty).
Which brings us to my current not giving a fuck about anything. There’s a certain type of band that can make a man feel miles tall, can convince a man that rather than standing in a smoky crowd of swaying hipsters at Bimbo’s 365 at midnight on a Tuesday he instead straddles the milky way. Straddles it. Here’s how the Raveonettes do it:
Step 1: I don’t know how exactly they do things in Denmark, but they had two drummers, and they were both standing up. This dual-drum action made the show as much a tactile (touch-y) experience as an auditory (listen-y) one. Every fold in my clothing was vibrating from the wall of sound these slender, hip people bashed out of their Zlijidians. I was like, “yup.”
Step 2: Three words, kids. CLOSE VOCAL HARMONIES. Sune and Sharin, throughout the set, sang the same words at the same time, together. You couldn’t pry their sibilant tones apart with a crowbar. Just two painfully hip Danes, belting into two microphones to create an androgynous super voice. Not too soulful, not too whiny, the blended vocals reminded me of the B-52s. Edgy, edgy B-52s. The lyrics are dooooomy and melodramatic and have that “English is not my first language” quality (think ABBA), but they’re delivered, for the most part, in an upbeat pop-mode.Which clashes productively with Step 3.
Step 3: Electro-doomatron melodies. The wall of sound mentioned earlier supports simple chords, sort of sixties rock ‘n roll. But then Sharin and Sune pull a fast one on us, and some seriously dark bass and synthesizer pours out. And some fuzzy noise too. Sounds like…the XX tuning their instruments, with lots of feedback. Also, The Cure. It’s a lot to process, but that’s sort of fine. Raveonettes are the best thing to come out of Denmark since Soren Kierkegaard, and they will make you feel a lot better about yourself than an evening spent with Fear and Trembling. Five Stars. Ten Stars. Fifty Stars. Seriously, I’m all up on the milky way. I got stars for days.
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