Saturday night, I took refuge inside Bowery Ballroom. The ladies of Au Revoir Simone provided a great retreat from the crazy week and the even crazier week ahead.
Heather, Erika and Annie return to their NYC homebase after a lengthy four-week U.S. tour. The threesome are touting their third full-length album, Still Night, Still Light. The new album is very much in the Au Revoir realm, with cosmic imagery and romantic hopefulness.
I've always felt that the band is the soundtrack the life of the shy girl you knew in grade school. I'm reminded of the girl in the M83 video for "Don't Save Us From The Flames". The girl who gets picked on during the soccer games, rides her Huffy around the woods and is constantly daydreaming. Also, amidst the lo-fi electronic beats is an awesome sense of wonder.
Seeing the band live with their multiple keyboards, electronic drums and sequencers is actually rather invigorating and spunky. They operate the middle-ground between the techno dance beats and ambient trance music. I reminded of those pre-programmed rhythms on the old organs in the piano store in the mall. When I was kid, I use play with the Casio keyboards in electronics department and go through all the beats like samba, salsa, meringue. That's what Au Revoir Simone feel like to me. Although, they add many more elements, most importantly their quiet, little girl on the verge of maturity vocals.
To conclude the show, they brought out the opening acts, as well as local band The Antlers, for their Michael Jackson tribute. The groups did a smooth 70s pop style cover of "Man in the Mirror". You need to acknowledge the passing of the great gloved one. I had four conversations that night all about MJ. It's seems we'll be in a state of disbelieve for a little while longer. Then Billy Mays today! Crazy!
In any event, the chickies were super-excited to back home. They talked about seeing the most awesome rainbow driving in from Cleveland. You see, you have to take happiness from the little things in life, like rainbows, cinnamon cookies, scratch-n-sniff puffy stickers and fresh socks from the dryer. There's you're pull quote from this post, "Seeing Au Revoir Simone is like putting on fresh socks from the dryer, very comforting."
U.K.'s Findlay Brown is a nice discovery from the night. He tagged along for the tour with A.R.S. He has a classic pop sound with a voice that reminded me of George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Richard Hawley. He has a cool swagger about him with tall hair and a bow-tie and suit. His songs are big production numbers with choirs and strings. That wall of sound effect on his debut album, Separated By The Sea, comes from one of the hottest producers in the past few years, Suede lead singer Bernard Butler (Duffy's Rockferry).
The funny, or maybe awkward, thing about the guy is that his sense of humor reminds me of David Brent from original, The Office. He was trying to get his monitors adjusted, attempt to make a joke then mumble something while laughing. At one point he grabbed his crotch and cackled and I thought, "Yup, that's a Gervais move."
To add to his set, he jumped into the crowd for his last song to do a rousing Elvis-style jam among the people. Now, that's a guy who had confidence.
Opening the night was local act, Lights, who are not to be confused with a Canadian band also called Lights or another local band called Francis and the Lights. This Lights is a funky, psych-y three piece who play dark, sexy disco music that would fit into the 70s New York night club scene. Think Blondie but heavy on the dirty glam chic.
