Samples In Distress

I haven't been to Sneaky Dee's for a long time, partly because they don't book as many live shows as other venues, and partly because it's mostly a dive with poor sound. Thursday night, there was a Red Bull-sponsored event, moved over from Adelaide Hall.

All three acts used pre-recorded tracks (or at least samples) augmented with live vocals. Bad Channels unfortunately lived up to their moniker. Sneaky's doesn't have great sound, and playing music through your Mac won't help. But it was the slightly flat, out-of-tune singing that ruined this set. I hope that it was due to mostly to lack of stage inexperience. They had equipment trouble and had to abort early.

Animalia had a similar set-up: a guy on drums, a female singer, and samples and tracks being triggered. But it was a night and day experience. Actual musical gear made controls easier, the drummer's manic pounding kept the energy high, and Jill Krasnicki was a force of nature. Belted  notes, low trance-y chants, random twitches, it was a theatrical performance but rooted in percussive synth music.

Head-liner U.S. Girls was even more old-school: Meg Remy manipulated samples being played through an old cassette player. Although she book-ended her set with more avant-gard, chromatic songs, her music wouldn't be out-of-place with 60s girl bands. That is, if you kept the sweet sound, but feed it through crazy electronic glitches, thumping bass, and make the lyrics a whole lot darker. Appropriate then, that her pixie haircut, and high-waisted denim outfit, seemed to invoke Joan Jett crossed with Lesley Gore.