Live Show Review: Delta Spirit at the Fillmore

Delta Spirit :: 05.10.12 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA

Originally published on May 18, 2012

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/92210/Delta-Spirit-California-Review

 

Delta Spirit by Annelise Poda

A sold out crowd was drawn to The Fillmore on Thursday last week for a night of stomping and clapping along to the blues-rock sounds of Delta Spirit. This up and coming band is based in San Diego with connective roots running from the South, and you can hear a wide variety of regional influences in their soulful indie-Americana sound. Delta Spirit played a solid set of heartfelt songs of all varieties, including jubilant dancing numbers as well as expressive ruminations on sorrow and love, and the crowd was swept away in the emotive music that pulsed out from the stage.

The show started off slowly, like a train pulling out of a first station on a long journey, but the night quickly picked up steam as the quiet finger picking guitar melodies of “White Table” revved up into heavy chord strums. There were two drummers on stage with full kits plus auxiliary percussive instruments, and it was readily apparent that percussion plays a big part in the feel and progression of Delta Spirit’s music. Deep floor tom beats built up foundations, and snare rim shots paired with intricate hi hat taps to cradle the other instruments as energy fell back down.

Watching these guys play together one can’t help but notice how deeply immersed they are in their music, completely interconnected to create a thick wall of sound. Frontman Matthew Vasquez stands out from the rest of the band as liaison to the audience, and his familiar stage presence and carefree dancing makes you feel like you’ve known him for years. Vasquez kept up a lively dialogue with the crowd throughout the entire set and acted as spiritual guide for the evening of captivating music.

 

Delta Spirit by Annelise Poda

The set progressed with a variety of songs, which kept things interesting. The relatively calm opening songs were followed by a rousing performance of “Tear it Up,” which featured muted guitar riff accents and a thick beat that got the audience moving. Right before the next song, the entire room darkened except for a bright spotlight on Vasquez and his guitar. He snapped into action and started to rhythmically convulse and vigorously shake his head as he let out an elongated howl. Distorted, jerky guitar notes echoed through the room and he moved as if he were possessed by an evil spirit of a past rocker, perhaps a warped version of Jimi Hendrix playing the “Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock.

The action was kicked up a notch during “Bushwick Blues,” and dancing and stomping from fans shook the floor with the strength of a not so minor earthquake. Throughout the night, Vasquez made a variety of song dedications to local friends, the opening band, and even simply couples in love. His warm comments had a great effect on the diverse audience, and one couldn’t miss their expressions of pure happiness all around the room. It was truly a great crowd to be surrounded by.

The set concluded with their newest single, “California,” which had everyone singing along with the extended “oooooh” parts that gradually transitioned into a chorus of “Ole, Ole, Ole” as the band left the stage. This chant continued until Delta Spirit came back out to join in on the singing themselves and kick it up a further notch. The encore started with a very quiet, powerful “Devil Knows You’re Dead.” Vasquez sang the lyrics with his eyes tearing up, showing how really connected these musicians are to the music they create.

 

Delta Spirit by Annelise Poda

The band made use of a diverse array of instruments throughout the set, which gave new feeling to each song with an array including harmonicas, synthesizers and even a drum machine. But, the greatest of all of the featured sounds was a trashcan lid used as a drum for the aptly named “Trashcan.” This was a great choice for a climactic number as it left everyone in an uplifted, joyous mood. Vasquez switched places with keyboard player and fellow songwriter Kelly Winrichand proceeded to play the piano with his feet, jump off of it, and then acquire a big furry wolf tail and dance a happy wolf jig around the stage. If you are not familiar with such a dance, just know that you’ll recognize one when you see it.

The crowd could have undoubtedly kept going, but Delta Spirit let everyone know that the night was over when Vasquez dramatically crashed to the floor, legs kicking in the air and the rest of his body writhing about on the floor. He rose up to fall over again and took out guitarist Will McLaren with him on the way down. It was an amazing ending to a really solid all-around concert, and the cherry on the top of the night was that everyone went home with free commemorative posters from The Fillmore. Delta Spirit will be on tour for the next few months, check their schedule to see if they come to your city. Their live show is a guaranteed good night out on the town.

Live Show Review: Justice and the Rapture at the Fox Theater

Justice with The Rapture :: 04.17.12 :: Fox Theater :: Oakland, CA

Originally published on April 25, 2012

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/91593/Justice-with-The-Rapture-Oakland-Review

Justice by Annelise Poda

Amps were cranked to 11 and minds were blown at the Fox Theater early last week as French electro house heroes Justice hit Oakland for a much-anticipated performance. Each year around mid-April, the Bay Area plays host to a high concentration of top tier artists because of the infamous Coachella festival in Southern California. The festival always boasts an impressive lineup and many of them end up booking dates in San Francisco before or after the festival. Since Coachella was expanded to two separate weekends this year, there were even more opportunities for great talent like Justice to come up north and play during this “Fauxchella” week. It’s a winning situation for Northern California, and Justice definitely lived up to the hype to deliver an adrenaline-infused set that people and their ringing ears will be high from for days to come.

The Rapture, another band on the Coachella bill, opened up this show with some grooving synth jams that were a perfect warm up for a night of energized dancing. The Rapture takes the funk band formula and applies rock overtones to it, giving them a unique sound that shook the audience into party mode. Lively bass lines are prominent in the mix, and they provide a backbone for wah-wah funk guitar accents, vibrant vocals, and even the occasional sexy saxophone solo. The band played classic fan favorites as well as new tracks off their recently released album In the Grace of Your Love. Highlights of the set included the sax-infused “Get Myself Into It” and “Whoo! Alright Yeah…Uh Huh”, where muliti-instrumentalist Gabriel Andruzzi went off on the best cowbell jam I have ever witnessed. He rocked out all around his keyboard stand with big swooping dance moves, giving off waves of ecstatic energy and really exploring all of the space around the stage left area. The cowbell is always a huge crowd pleaser, and people really got into the song and yelled along the exclamatory “Whoo!, Alright!” lyrics with the countertenor vocals of lead singer Luke Jenner. They wrapped up their set by playing their new piano-saturated single “How Deep is Your Love?”, where they traded their instruments for synthesizers and took the audience on a journey of looping bass lines and emotional singing. Many of The Rapture’s newer tracks are more synth-focused when compared to their previous rock centric album Pieces of the People We Love, and these contrasting styles made for a great blend of diverse music for their set. The song ended with a very enthusiastic audience singing and clapping along in unison to the fading lyrics, and spirits were high on the way into the headlining act.

Justice by Annelise Poda

Justice is one of the most notable artists in the electronic dance music scene, having cut their teeth creating head-turning remixes early on, and then subsequently signed to the notable tastemaker label Ed Banger Records. They quickly gained a rabid fan base and accelerated to world recognition with the release of their debut album † (Pronounced Cross). Justice is the work of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, two guys in leather jackets that give off a rock star vibe but also back it up by employing heavy use of punk rock and gnashing guitar parts in their mixes. Their usage of rock samples and electro house elements blends together to produce uniquely deep-hitting tracks and mosh-heavy live shows.

The minute that Augé and Rosnay took the stage at the Fox it was obvious that something big was about to go down. Their stage setup was composed of two massive amp walls of Marshall stacks that they positioned themselves in between and dramatically started off the show with the booming orchestral first track off their debut “Genesis”. People were pressed up against the gate at the front of the stage and responded appropriately as the tempo picked up and the first massive bass drop was executed. The energy levels among the audience were even palpable. You could feel the floor boards shaking as the crowd jumped up for a blasting metal riff, and when looking out over the crazed fans, everyone’s bodies vigorously moved together to create an undulating sea of grinding electro bliss.

Justice by Annelise Poda

Justice continued on and delivered a genre bending mash up set that spanned their entire catalog, including tracks from their more recent 2011 release Audio, Video, Disco. Their albums are engaging and it seems natural to listen to them the whole way though and really get to know each build-up and drop, so it was an exciting experience to hear the artists grab bits and pieces from different songs to twist their music in a different way. They took some of their tracks in the opposite direction and stretched them into new territory, speeding up certain parts, or stripping away different instrument tracks to play them in their most minimalist form.

During “D.A.N.C.E.” – arguably their most successful single – their blinking turntable stage setup split open to reveal an illuminated alcove with a single keyboard where Rosnay had a seat and played out the most elemental melody of the song. This was gradually built back up into a rougher mix with a digitalized bass line, and then finally to a full on pounding dance track. By the end of this musical journey, Justice had elevated the energy so much that the entire venue was going crazy. They did a very good job of expanding their recorded tracks into new places, which is a very admirable thing to see in a live DJ style performance.

Justice by Annelise Poda

In addition to Justice’s dynamic mixing skills, the visual aspect of this show was innovative and dazzlingly produced. The Marshall stacks turned out to be vessels for eye-popping animated LED light configurations, and the stage was hung with curtains of evenly spaced ping-pong ball sized lights that hosted endless patterns of snaking light formations. Occasionally, the normal stage lights would go on behind this curtain, and surprising new depth would be given to the room. It looked like whoever designed this light setup had an absolute blast figuring out how to morph the atmosphere in the room during different songs, and it’s always great to see a show where it’s apparent that very creative people were involved in its production.

Justice ended the night with an encore that started out with their new single “On’n’On”, another number that started out slowly and built up to a massive finish. They mixed in the lyrics from “We Are Your Friends”, one of their very early, catchy creations, and left the audience with the echoing mantra: “We are your friends, you’ll never be alone again, well c’mon.” The line rang out over the audience, a very true sentiment for a crowd crushed in on every side by old comrades and newly acquired dance partners, everyone sweaty and happy from the supercharged Justice performance.

Coachella was smart to have booked this group, and Oakland was more than happy to host them for this special show. Justice will be back for San Francisco’s Outside Lands Festival in August, so if this sounds like a set you’d want to check out be sure to snag tickets to see them in Golden Gate Park.

Show Review: Andrew W.K. at the Regency

Originally published on March 13, 2012

http://www.jambase.com/Articles/90512/Andrew-W.K.-San-Francisco-Review

Andrew W.K. :: 03.06.12 :: The Regency Ballroom :: San Francisco, CA

Andrew W.K. by Alex Becker

Party master Andrew W.K. is currently on tour, bringing his super-sized arena rock to local venues across the country. If you were to watch a performance without knowing where the show was happening, it would not be a big stretch of the imagination to picture Andrew and his hard rocking bandmates on an elaborately crafted stage with extended catwalks and pulsing laser light shows at Madison Square Garden. The energy that explodes off the stage during his live shows is really just that high, and he never stops to rest from roaring out vocals, beating piano keys into submission, and headbanging along with the audience at any spare moment. This current tour is highlighting Andrew’s 2001 debut album, I Get Wet, and they played through all of the tracks that many fans had memorized long ago. An excited crowd came out to The Regency Ballroomlast week where Andrew W.K effectively demonstrated why he has been labeled as one of the only true rock stars of the past decade, as he definitely orchestrated an all-inclusive, adrenaline-infused, and just pure fun night of rocking out in San Francisco.

The show started off with a generic voice recording addressing the audience with this message: “Hello everybody. It’s time to party.” The crowd kept up the latter part of this chant until the lights went out and Andrew W.K. sauntered out to blast into the first song of the set, fittingly titled “It’s Time to Party”. People took this initial message to heart, and the whole front half of the room roughhoused their way into a churning pit that stripped people of their inhibitions as well as their shoes, and there was even a sighting of one crowd surfer that temporarily got separated from his pants. All of these things can be used as a gauge to determine how rocking a show actually is, and if a concert is so crazy that it separates fans from their pants, the readings from the rock meter have almost certainly gone WAY into the red.

Andrew W.K. by Lindsay Merrill

Andrew W.K really has a giant following of some of the most supportive and overly enthusiastic superfans. People copied his style and dressed in all white with his trademark fake blood splatter flowing from their noses down the front of their shirts. All these people that could have been extras on the set of Dextercame out to rage in a no holds barred night of moshing, and Andrew W.K. did not disappoint. He showed off his skills on the piano, an instrument he started to learn at age four, and the fast paced and clear toned notes provided a neat, unconventional contrast to the distorted guitar chords and metal style vocals of his music.

The rest of the musicians on stage added to the chaos, which was inevitable with an overwhelming five guitar players who looked like they had been pulled straight from a 80s Whitesnake poster. Their seriously long hair obscured contorted expressions while they ground out distorted metal guitar hooks and sang along with Andrew during the repeating lyrics of many songs. Further musicians on stage included a bassist, a drummer, and a hardcore female vocalist sporting a leather leotard outfit that made it look like she was in the midst of leading a metal head aerobic workout video. Whenever there was a break in the lyrics, she and Andrew would bust out some wildly animated dance moves, most of which involved punching in different directions while headbanging and whipping their bountiful hair in circles. People in the audience took their cues and adopted these moves, many of which were put into practice on stage when crowd surfers swam hard enough over the hands of friends to make it up to the front.

Andrew W.K. by Lindsay Merrill

The best part of the night was close to the end of the show when the band played “Don’t Stop Living in the Red”, at which point half of the audience propelled themselves up on stage to go crazy with the band. Everyone was wholly absorbed in the present and vivaciously animated, singing along and playing air guitar. Andrew W.K. stopped and addressed his newly formed entourage, “We’re not putting on a concert right now; we’re having a party!” When looking out over the crowd and seeing how everybody was so completely filled with pure excited energy, his sentiment was completely true.

The show ended after an encore where the band played a few new songs, one simply being named “Head Bang”. The bridge of this number contains full minutes of extended guitar shredding, and the audience was immediately back up on stage to demonstrate the full experience of the song. Everyone appreciatively cheered as the night came to a close, and then happily went off on a mission to look for stray shoes that had gotten away during the course of the night. Andrew W.K. constantly references partying and living life to its full positive potential in all of his songs, and he definitely brought a night packed with crazed fun to San Francisco. If you want to get in on this mayhem, check to see if this tour is coming to your city and go get wet with Andrew W.K.

Show Review: Wallpaper. at Slim’s

Originally published on February 2, 2011

http://www.crawdaddyarchive.com/index.php/2011/02/02/live-show-review-wallpaper-at-slims-san-francisco/

Wallpaper. and K. Flay
January 28th at Slim’s, San Francisco

A diverse crowd of people looking to get down to some synth-heavy jams were lined up outside Slim’s last Friday for a night of music headlined by Oakland dance outfit Wallpaper. Fresh off of work and looking for an outrageous night out, these people had come to the right place. After many rounds of drinks had been served (and disproportionately spilled by the dancing girls in heart shaped sunglasses nearby), the show was a success, even if only measured by how much stickier the floor was by the end of the night.

Wallpaper. is the creation of Eric Frederick, a long time Bay Area musician who has been dedicated to putting out diverse styles of music over the past years. Wallpaper. is focused on the fusion of deep funk bass lines, horn accents, and electro beats that all come together to create some killer jams that absolutely make you want to dance. At first glance, a listener might disregard Wallpaper. songs as just catchy pop music, but after they have infected your ears and more time has been given to listening to the music, you realize that the layered tracks are really well put together and that time and talent were definitely involved in their creation. There’s a feeling of soul behind the music, and when coupled with some seriously ridiculous lyrics, they are definitely the first tracks to cue up on your iPod when getting ready for a weekend out with friends. Frederick performs live shows as his alter ego of Ricky Reed, a swaggering well-dressed party animal that sings tunes of Four Loko binges, hooking up with celebrities, and unpaid utility bills. The enthusiastic dancing and hilarious showmanship of Ricky Reed is probably the biggest reason for the growing fan base of this East Bay band, and they were definitely ready to headline Slim’s this past weekend.

Self-produced hip-hop artist K.Flay was one of the earlier acts of the night. She wasted no time in starting her set, as she set up behind a drum machine and began punching out a beat on the spot that built to become a thumping track to rap to. Her act was lively and very refreshing after experiencing the slightly obnoxious power-pop opening band the Dance Party. K.Flay sampled various artists including the Gossip in her mashed up tracks, which made for a foundation of upbeat recognizable mixes that got the audience’s heads nodding and hands clapping along to her raps. K.Flay’s songs were fast and entertaining rhymes about everyday life and relationships. Her sharp disses and clever similes had me thinking she would have been an entertaining addition to the rap battle round robin tournament in 8 Mile. Maybe she could be edited in for a special edition YouTube video sequel to the movie. Holding two degrees from Stanford, K.Flay is definitely on a path travelled by very few of her classmates. However, her skilful song writing and energetic live performance confirm that she is in the right place. She warmed up the stage for Wallpaper., who started playing to an already stoked audience.

After the set change, Ricky Reed ran out between mirrored drum kits while the speakers blasted the track for “T. Rex.” A very appropriate start to their set, the party anthem is all about “going big on the weekends.” This is probably Wallpaper.’s most recognizable song, and one guy had even worn his very own dinosaur costume to the show in anticipation. Wallpaper. plays with a  live drummer, giving tracks an added sound boost. Arjun Singh is usually the man behind the cymbals, but he was noticeably absent. Reed reported that Singh had quit the band to pursue his first dream of becoming a Bollywood movie star. You heard it here first, guys. Arjun’s place was filled by not just one but two drummers, Derek Taylor and Tom Peyton, and even the African Drum Ensemble from Berkeley made an appearance for the last few songs. Guest vocalists were also featured, and all these added musicians made for a very dynamic Wallpaper. show. The band played through most of the songs off their 2009 release Doodoo Face, as well as some new tracks like the crunkalicious single “#STUPiDFACEDD.” The bass-dominated beat had everyone violently throwing their hands towards the stage at the end of the night. The show concluded with an encore performance of “Poison”, originally by Bell Biv Devoe, and many people climbed up to dance onstage, ending the night with a bang. This crowd came to have a good time and stumbled home or to the next bar afterwards with both high spirits and BAC percentages.