Beach House wrap-up with Manic and Grumpus

imairesse | 6/06/2007 2:15 am | Playtime with Grumpus

I had heard less than a minute of the Baltimore-based Beach House's debut record before witnessing their opening set for The Clientele last Friday at the High Noon Saloon. However, I attended with a friend, Manic, whose BH insights, performance commentary, and eventual run-in with the band members kept it interesting...

After keyboardist Victoria Legrand addressed the crowd with a drawled, dozy "Hey, y'all," Manic whispered over my shoulder counteractively:

"Wait. Aren't these guys from, like, Connecticut?"

Further into the show, as I failed to find the source of the programmed percussion and electronics accompanying the two live players (Legrand and guitarist Alex Skally), Manic pointed to a glowing, square-shaped sampler seated between the musicians. "That's their magic box of treats," he revealed, "their little treasure chest."

Upset, due to a technical mix-up that took place during one of their numbers, Legrand finished by shrugging , "That sucked." Manic pounced back:

"No. Actually that rocked."

After learning from the group's tour driver that Legrand "would get totally pissed" if anyone referred to her as Vicki, Manic still took his chances. After outstaying his welcome with the band by the merch table, he teased:

"Wanna shake my hand, Vicki?"

"Don't you call me that!" she shouted back.

"Byyye, Vicki"

====

More Cowbell did not care to tease:

"Sadly, I didn't think that the other openers Beach House offered quite as much. This duet is clearly quite talented. However, their performances feature only the two of them seated and running through their array songs. The crowd didn't seem to get into this much, especially following such an energetic performance from Pale Young Gentlemen."

The Clientele's van, powered by gin and Pynchon:

"Beach House are playing their last song as I write and seem to be going down well with the crowd. I am a little sad that we have only seven more shows in the US, it's passed like a dream, but I did use my van time to get my teeth into "Mason and Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon, which only really kicks off around page 350 in my opinion. Well cheers, I will end this exhibitionism and have a gin and tonic, after all i actually have an excuse to get drunk this evening."

Download:

• Vicki says hello to "Tokyo Winter" [mp3 @ INDIEBLOGHEAVEN]
• Roams the "Apple Orchard" [mp3 @ Hate Something Beautiful]

blog entry tag reference

music

go to Playtime with Grumpus | Digg this story | add to del.icio.us | print | email