From KaisrSolze Sent Thu, Nov 6th 1997, 04:39
From KaisrSolze Sent Thu, Nov 6th 1997, 04:39
WOW.
Stereolab can tear shit up live.
I don't own any of their albums, and i wasn't expecting a helluva lot. They
started off slow, but loud, mostly playing their album tracks live--good, not
amazing. But they built, and built. Halfway through the show, they started
going into extended versions, deconstructed versions, as groovy as vinyl, as
funky as last week's socks. Their drummer was incredible--he layed down some
incredibly phat beats, just begging to be sampled. Then the band laid guitar
and bass on top, followed by drones and moogs and other electronic sounds.
The vocals added a final layer, until a few minutes into each song, this
amazingly pulsating wash of music surrounded the entire audience, and it was
impossible to keep from moving. They played around an hour and then they
came back out for an encore, which brought the crowd back down, before
building it all up again one more time. Once again, the drummer led the way,
especially on one song where he slowly increased the tempo until he was
pounding away as fast as he could, with mad funk. It was pretty incredible.
They mostly played stuff off their last two albums--percolator, that 10
minute krautrock song that licks off ETK, and a few others (the only album of
theirs I've heard). LOUD-don't forget your earplugs if you're any smarter
than i am. Get tickets if they aren't sold out--just go!
MoM was ok. they played for around 45 minutes, almost playing a "MoM does
Daft Punk" type of set (i.e laying down a simple beat, noodling on top, then
mixing from one sound to another with very little melody). the crowd wasn't
really into it, and deservedly. Mom was able to build on occasion, but they
kept everything on too lond. Near the end of the set, they got pretty funky,
bleepy, bloopy, but even that lost it's fun after a few minutes. Overall,
solid, but not anything to write home about.
Sam