Erase Errata
Emo’s, Thursday, March 16
Wearing dresses made of what looked like purple rabbits’ feet, gold lamé, and Eighties bathing suits, San Francisco’s Erase Errata looked like some sort of acid-tinged rainbow as they jerked across the stage. Singer/guitarist Jenny Hoysten has taken over guitar duties since the departure of Sara Jaffe in 2004, and her vocals have taken on a more pronounced swagger and swerve since their debut Other Animals, where she tended to shout rather than sing. Bassist Ellie Erickson provided the beefy lines and drummer Bianca Sparta served up the deep-fried beats, dishing out mostly new songs from their summer Kill Rock Stars release Night Life. Where albums like Animals or 2003’s At Crystal Palace were more experimental, dissonant, free-jazz ventures, rife with trombone skronk and heart-attack beats, the ladies have finally found an elastic groove to stick in their rabbit fur fanny packs. Like a Technicolor cheetah, Hoysten broke strings, scratched out fuzzy blasts of guitar noise, and yelped Slits-style. The band seemed to be trying to fit as many notes and as much noise into one tiny space as they could. Erase Errata no longer play the nervous noise with paranoid lyrics. This is music that, at least for the time being, channels all the paranoia into danceable fits of spastic attitude.This article appears in March 17 • 2006.