It’s amusing to contrast last night’s LoVe TaN show with David Byrne’s Feb. 18 spectacle at Benaroya Hall. Byrne’s entourage likely outnumbered the entire crowd at Cairo; Benaroya’s stage is larger than Cairo’s entire square footage; the money taken in at Cairo last night wouldn’t even pay for the bottled water on Byrne’s rider. Etc., etc.

Enough about that. Let’s talk about LoVe TaN. Formerly known as Pyramids, they consist of drummer Matthew Ford (also in Factums) and guitarist Craig Chambers (also in the Lights), both of whom sing in a flat, untutored white-guy manner. LoVe TaN play stripped-down, primitive rock à la the Intelligence, Fugs, Godz, and Swell Maps, following in the tradition of gear-poor units whose passion, cleverness, and keen knowledge of underground rock translate into songs that blast you with immediacy and bracingly raw textures. They cut to the fucking point, and then repeatedly jab you with that point. Grandy mentioned that LoVe TaN remind him of bands he used to see playing Olympia WA house parties, and one can imagine Calvin Johnson flapping open his K Records checkbook for these guys after seeing one gig.

LoVe TaN’s cover of John Lennon’s “I Found Out,” one of his toughest solo joints, did absolute justice to that classic. A couple of other covers appeared along with about 10 concise, cutting originals, including one that consisted of Chambers harnessing and sculpting feedback into a skree symphony of sorts.

Too rudimentary and subterranean to be classified as garage rock, LoVe TaN are, perhaps, basement-party rock. Whatever the hell you want to call them, we’ll be closely monitoring their developments.

[LoVe TaN's Misc. Night Feelings is available on Kill Shaman Records.]

Photo courtesy LoVe TaN's MySpace.