Urban Outfitters In-Store
Urban Outfitters, Thursday, March 19
Never mind that most folks in the crowd looked like they had purchased and put on an outfit at this university-area clothier. Countering was this bill of hipster-attracting buzz bands, like Calgary quartet Women, which started off the day. Their self-titled Jagjaguwar debut is a short, sweet ride through bent notes and droned harmonies. Live, they pulled out the noise pop of the recording, their phenomenal drummer and anchoring bassist in the middle, two guitarists stage left and right. In that formation, they locked in “Black Rice” and “Shaking Hand,” the guitar interplay recalling Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. Sonically similar was L.A. fourpiece Abe Vigoda, whose own two six-stringers bounced with nervous energy, singer Michael Vidal even doing a little dance when he played. On the less wound-up end of the rainbow, unfortunately named Brooklyn fourpiece Crystal Stilts made their love for the Jesus & Mary Chain known, causing one nearby audience member to refer to their stumbling fuzz as “unplanned pregnancy music.” Live, they sounded more subdued than on recent LP Alight of Night. Fellow Brooklynites Vivian Girls started their set with a story about their bassist getting fired from an Urban Outfitters, which lent their jangle pop awkward charm. “Can you understand what I’m saying?” guitarist Cassie Ramone asked the crowd. “Yes? More reverb, then.”
This article appears in March 20 • 2009.