OF Montreal, The Blow - The Showbox

It’s been years since I last saw Khaela Maricich perform, and I can’t remember if that would’ve been as the Blow or as her previous incarnation, Get The Hell Out Of The Way Of The Volcano. Whichever it was, the last time I saw her was probably at some little all-ages art space or house show (Olympia’s defunct Arrow Space or Seattle’s Secluded Alley Works, maybe) with about 30 people. So seeing her take the stage in front of a sold-out Showbox crowd was something else entirely. A lot of the audience was chatting as she launched into an a cappella of “How Naked Are We Gonna Get?” but halfway through the song people seemed to realize that this was in fact the show.

Maricich’s dance moves have improved considerably in the last few years. She exudes real confidence in her quirky, bedroom-dancing choreography, her geeky, collegiate whiteness, and her literally illustrative gestures. she even did “the worm” at one point. The last time I saw someone own the Showbox stage so well with only a microphone was M.I.A., and the Blow didn’t even have a hype-girl or a DJ to play off of. The crowd almost seemed to like her between song banter better than her actual songs, cheering wildly for her serialized descriptions of running to karaoke bars, dancing for college credit at Evergreen, and talking to boys. She riffed about there being two kinds of pop songs—songs of longing (she sang the choruses of “My Sharona” and “Hey Mickey” as examples) and songs of love and contentment—and how she greatly prefers songs of want. Between her dancing, singing, and story-telling, Maricich was breathless, and the very human fallibility of her voice was charming. Maricich has a lovely, practiced singing voice, but the way she embraces and plays with its limitations is refreshing. Plus, the Blow are totally crush-worthy—I can’t remember the last time I felt so enamored of someone on stage. Her whole set was fairly fun, but “Pile of Gold” and “Parentheses” were especial highlights.

The sound was fine for the Blow—not surprising, since there’s just a mic and a pre-recorded set of music—but Of Montreal had issues. It sounded, to my parties’ ears, like they were playing in another room, underwater, or on a clock radio. The vocals were clear, and the synth on “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse” cut through the mix brilliantly, but most of their set sounded strangely muffled—a friend remarked that it somehow sound both muddy and tinny. Of Montreal’s recordings are such crystal clear, finely detailed constructions, and hearing them rendered so flat live was disappointing. Live, the band seem less polished and more psychedelic, which would have worked fine if the sound was better. There were some computerized mandalas projected behind the band which expanded and contracted and became pixelated like some old mac screensaver, and at other times, shots of the band playing filled the screen, jumbotron-style, occasionally altered with some public-access quality video effects. The band had cool, glittery outfits and garish makeup of course, but it wasn’t the total spectacle that all the hype I’d heard had me expecting. Today, on my home stereo, Hissing Fauna is still utterly fantastic—it’s just a shame the show didn’t sound this good.

Drop The Lime - Re-Bar

Sound was an issue at Re-Bar too, which was surprising given how much extra amplification had been brought in for the show. Naha’s set sounded fine, if not as loud and bassy as I’d been hoping for. But when Drop The Lime went on, the sound was a ghost audible only in the monitors. It was too bad, because from what could be heard it sounded like DTL launched straight into some heavy shit. Dude was feeling it, rocking out and pumping fists, seemingly unaware of the sound issue. After a minute or two he realized what was up and got on the mic for a minute while things got sorted out. After that the sound was fine, but again not as bass-heavy as promised. Still, DTL is on top of his game—he had the crowd going nuts for his refixes of “The Final Countdown” and “Died In Your Arms Tonight,” not to mention all his original material, and he worked the mic like a maniacal hype man, chopping and tweaking his shout outs into his set. It was a great show, and there was a great crowd out, including lots of familiar faces. If Shameless keeps throwing insane parties with talent like Modeselektor and Drop The Lime, then NME’s much-heralded “new rave” might actually happen in Seattle, but it’s not going to look like they thought it would.