Monday, December 18, 2006

Silversun Pickups, Midnight Movies, Twilight Sleep at the Troubadour






It is only fitting that the spectacular concert year of 2006 close with a double shot of Silversun Pickups. Talking to Brian at the instore at Fingerprints Records he warned me to get to the Troubadour early to check out the opening bands. It turns out he was right. Twilight Sleep was up first and made quite the impression. They performed a collection of dreamy electronic tinged songs. The keyboard player was conjuring some interesting sounds from his setup. He was using Ableton Live 6 as his sampler. Tracy the lead singer had a beautiful voice reminiscent of Bjork. You can download some of their songs on myspace. They will be playing the Silverlake Lounge on January 29 and I may check it out. Brian was in the crowd cheering them along. Midnight Movies was next and played a good set. They were not restricted by their bandages(see Ladytron Halloween review) this time. Gena entranced the crowd and played a strong set. Sandra also busted out the flute which was impressive. It may be a coincidence that they call themselves Midnight Movies because the music does have a cinematic feel too it. Ryan also gets huge points for rocking the Fender Jaguar on "Patient Eye". They will be at Safari Sam's in January as well. Silversun Pickups came up next and rocked the house. As they get bigger.. so does Brian's guitar setup as he added a small Vox amp to his setup. He was A/B/C? switching between his Fender, Marshall, and Vox amps. One interesting note was he switched out his Big Muff Distortion for an Ibanez Turbo Distortion. At previous shows they had not played "Three Seed" but added it to the set and it sounded great. They played all of Carnavas and added "Kissing Families" to the amazing set. The Troubadour was at max capacity once they hit the stage. Joseph ended up tipping over his Keyboards at the end of the set and couldn't add his magic to "Common Reactor" but it still ruled. I am glad I went to both nights because I don't think they will play the Troubadour again for a long time.

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