Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Joy

So after a long hiatus, travelling around and being completely out of touch with the pop culture scene (something I'm still having trouble accepting), I'm back and hopefully will be updating a lot more. So the three of you that read this should start telling your friends. Anyway, here we go.


6/5/07- The Pipettes @ Highline Ballroom, NYC

I have to admit I’m a terrible feminist when it comes to music. Most of the time I find female singers whiny and overly emotional in their songs. I know it’s a part of a double standard. When a woman sings about a heartfelt breakup she’ll sound sensitive and weak, whereas that same quality is admirable and sweet in guys. But you have your Donnas, your Regina Spektors and Fiona Apples, and now you have your Pipettes. In fact, you have everyone who played their show at the Highline Ballroom on June 5th. The warehouse districts newest venue is open and dark, managing to make such an open space feel intimate. That intimacy worked well for Marit Bergman, the shy songstress from Sweden. She puts a spin on 60’s folk inspired songs by lacing heavenly harmonies with themes like rape, lesbian sex and loneliness on Halloween night. There was even a tune about Mama Cass, a fitting tribute considering her easy rhythm guitar and soulful soprano. Smoosh too channeled the past, this time in an early punk/new-wave fashion with clashing drums and distorted keyboards. And considering these girls didn’t look older than 15 it was certainly an impressive show. But of course the piece-de-resistance was the Pipettes. Matching dresses, matching hand movements and cute accents completely enchanted everyone in the audience. They went through almost their entire first album, plus some new songs from their EP. They brought the crowd in with their choreography and made sure no one went home without having a good time. And that was the difference with these women. They’re all about having a good time. Sure they may ignore any other emotion that afflicts a typical woman, but they’re representing a facet of the female population that doesn’t normally get much light: the happy girl. We get enough spokeswomen for the heartbroken girls, the girls rising from the ashes of a breakup, the girls wondering when they’re going to find their way in the world. But once in a Cyndi-Lauper-Moon there are those girls who are just genuinely happy to be alive and want to share that with everyone. The one downside? There just wasn’t enough. With some of their shorter songs clocking in at around a minute and a half, they sped through their repertoire in about 40 minutes. Hopefully next time they come around they’ll have a few more tunes to charm with, but that night there wasn’t a mopey girl in the house.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Nice music reviews. happy blogging!

John

8:19 AM  

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