Stereolab @ Town Hall: Nights One and Two

After a day of chaos walking around New York trying to avoid vomiting St. Patrick's Day revelers (is it me or does it get worse every year?), it was a welcome retreat to see one of my favorite bands of all time, Stereolab, in the comfy confines of Town Hall.

Stereolab is one of the bands I discovered in college, and I'm a firm believer that the music you listen to between the ages of 18 and 22 is the music you'll listen to the rest of your life. It explains my affection for 90s BritPop. So Stereolab is probably in the Top 5 of artists who I have the most CDs of. Checking my collection, it's 19 CDs. Damn.

The sheer catalog of music they're produced the past two decades is staggering. It shows the prolific nature of their creativity and their strong fan-base. If we keep buying their albums and going to their shows, they'll make more music. Even though I've followed them since the mid 90s, it just impossible to remember every song title and album it came from.

I've been listening heavily to their latest release Fab Four Suture, which collects their recent 7" singles into one CD. One of the criticism you'll find with Stereolab is that they haven't changed their sound much. They do have a specific sound, driving bassline and guitar hooks, analog keyboards, spastic blips and bleeps, melodic horns and oh-so-hip French vocals. My theory on Stereolab is that there's consistent through-line in all of their songs, sort of their medium-point and they either add to it by making it faster or busier with more layers of sound or they take away by stripping out instruments to make it more basic.

This new album is hard to pin down as a new direction or a return to their former self. I take it as it is, a warped ode to 60s pop using multiple layers of electronic rhythms. I think it's a fine effort producing a few standout numbers including "Excursions Into 'oh, a-oh'", which sounds like the theme to James Bond ripoff movie.

When they play live, they are more likely to crank up the tempo and just freak out with the electronics. It's one of those trippy experiences where you can either soak it all in and relax to their sometimes jazz-like sound or get off on your feet move to the beat. Who ever said in the crowd after four songs, "Can we stand-up?", which led Laetitia Sadier to ask crowd to all rise, is a genius. I was thinking the same thing. It is an awkward moment when you want to stand, but you don't want to bother the people behind you.

Here's the setlist from night one:

• Come and Play in the Milky Night
• Eye of the Volcano
• Vonal Declosion
• Visionary Road Maps
• Need to Be
• Interlock
• Pack Your Romantic Mind
• Excursions Into "oh, a-oh"
• I Feel the Air (of Another Planet)
• Mountain
• Miss Modular
• Whisper Pitch
• "...sudden stars"
• I Was a Sunny Rainphase
• Vodiak
• Cybele's Reverie
• You Used to Call Me Sadness
• We're Not Adult Oriented

The last time I saw them was the last tour, which was 2004 at Irving Plaza, I think? With Stereolab you're guaranteed a good time, standing or sitting, but with such a wealth of songs to choose from, they are not going to play your favorite song, for me it "Metronomic Underground" off their masterpiece, Emperor Tomato Ketchup. With their live act, the best parts are the freak-out, techno parts where they find a groove and just fill the hall with a blissful energy.

My pictures turned out horribly. I was fucking around with the ISO levels and it didn't turn out right. I'll be there tonight as well, so check you there.

On a side note, Laetitia is looking good these days.

Day Two

Like the dutiful fan I am, I attended the second night of Stereolab's two night residency at Town Hall. The same setlist as last night. I had a better seat on Friday. Tonight, I was one row back but all the way to the right in front of the speakers and since I forgot my earplugs, I'll have a lovely ringing in my ears for 3 days.

Tonight, it only took one song for someone to ask if we could stand up. Laetitia responded, "Yes. God will not strike you down. We will not send an army after you." Also tonight, somebody yelled out, "Fuck, yeah!" which caused her to say, "Fuckin' A", but obviously in a French accent. I wonder what she's like off-stage, like if she's a cool chic. She likes to dance and sway a bit while stage, but she never goes overboard by jumping around like Kylie Minogue or someone like that.

Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt opened up the second night with their mellow brand of electronic guitar folk. They played "Showrooms" and "Something". So there you go.