Clues, Drink Up Buttercup @ Santos Party House, June 18, 2009
By eh
I went for Clues, last night, but the band before them, Philadelphia's Drink Up Buttercup was phenomenal. That's them above.
I would describe their sound as the best parts of Animal Collective (who I don't like), combined with the quirky enthusiasm of Spinto Band with a dash Philly funk. It's tribal and weird and totally awesome.
Live, they ramp up the energy 10-fold. The four-piece consists of a guitarist/lead singer, a drummer and two guys who switch between bass, keyboard and backup percussion. You can tell you're in for something intense just by looking at their instruments. The bass in particular has seen better days; the strap is held on to the body of the instrument by what looks like an entire roll of gaffers tape. One add. percussion in their arsenal is a crumpled up aluminum garbage can.
They were wild! By the second song, the guitarist had accidentally kicked over his drink, and by the third he was asking, "If anyone can get me a whiskey, I'll pay you back after the show. I just need one now." Everyone wailed on their instruments, especially bass player number one. At one point the guitarist literally tossed his guitar aside. They all had a boyish enthusiasm for what they were doing and a tendency to ham it up. It was tremendous fun.
The music reflected this controlled chaos. One of their songs sounded just like a drunken merry-go-round: frantic and at risk of going of the rails (to mix metaphors), but holding it together just barely. Every aspect of the band's performance was so engaging that it took a while to realize that the musicianship going on up there was actually quite skilled. I'm biased toward bassists, but their lines were really complicated and cool, and the lead singer had an amazing set of pipes.
In all, it was the most fun I've had at a live show in a while, and I'll definitely be watching out for these guys.
And then came Clues. You can read their pedigree here, I don't feel like going through it again.
At this point in the night, I was pretty tired and hungry. Also my feet hurt. So this was my frame of mind as two guys came on stage to perform, like, a muezzin call to mosque, with one of them playing some sort of Ney flute. They stood in the dark as they performed, and I can't not mention that one of them was wearing sunglasses. It was pretty, but a tad bit pretentious.
But, it turned out that this was just an extended intro to Clues' actual set. Alden Penner and friends crept on stage as the two guys finished up their song. The band guitared up, and we were off.
I tried to approach this review without comparing Clues to Unicorns, but it can't be done. And maybe it shouldn't. Penner was 1/3 of that band, and that sound belonged as much to him as Nick D and Jamie Thompson. Clues is a product of its heritage.
The minor key, macabre, B-movie horror soundtrack is all there, as is the Unicorns-like disregard for traditional song structure and love of abrupt transitions. The twee quirk is gone, and Clues rocks a lot more than Unicorns ever did. They've got a beefed up low-fi sound that makes a nod to punk while remaining something else entirely. It may not be obvious from this description, but this is a positive review.
Some drunk idiot in the crowd kept yelling out requests for "Tuff Ghost" and "Jellybones," and there were actually a surprising number of meathead assholes for an indie rock crowd. But aside from that, the show was a lot of fun.
As you can read, I'm having trouble articulating my experience from last night, but that's because I liked it so much. I was (obviously) a big fan of Unicorns, and it's nice to see another alumn back on stage, still riffing on and evolving that sound. Also I was dead-on-my-feet tired by the time they went on. I'm getting old.
