Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Raveonettes and The Soft Pack at the Henry Fonda Theater

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Lust,Lust,Lust was one of the fuzzier albums of 2008. "Aly, Walk with Me" blew my mind with its torrential waves of feedback to close out the song. It is easily my favorite Raveonettes album. I caught The Raveonettes at the Detroit Bar in 2007 and at the Make Music Pasadena Festival in 2008. The addition of The Soft Pack made this show a slam dunk.

The Soft Pack
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I last caught The Soft Pack when they were known as The Muslims. They put together a toe tapping set opening for the Breeders at the Wiltern. The buzz continues to grow louder with The Soft Pack recently inking a deal with Kemado records.

The surf guitars were in full force for "Beside Myself" with the propulsive drumming by Brian Hill (Drums). "Extinction" tonally evokes the spirit of Joy Division but mixes things up with a swelling of background vocals. Dave Lantzman (Bass) drills the fuzz bass line into your head with the ping pong notes of "Nightlife".

An onslaught of infectious guitars crawls into your bloodstream with their ferocious closer "Parasites". The Soft Pack will be lighting up the Echo on Feb 4th and Feb 13th. It will be packed. Check them out at a small venue before it is too late.

The Raveonettes
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The dreamy "You Say, You Lie" set the tone early as The Raveonettes were assisted by the talented Heisenflei of The Pity Party on Drums. Sune Wagner (Vocals/Guitars) and Sharin Foo (Vocals/Guitars) were armed with Fender Jazzmasters hypnotizing the audience with sheets of sound.

The cavernous guitar reverb of "Hallucinations" was simply awe inspiring. I am always impressed how faithfully The Raveonettes recreate their guitar tones in a live setting. The lost gem from the sixties in the form of "Here Comes Mary" sounded pristine with the harmonizing vocals from Sune and Sharin.

Heisenflei hid in the shadows when she kicked off the haunting beats of "Black Satin". The Raveonettes traveled back to their first album Chain Gang Of Love for "Noisy Summer". By the way, was anybody perplexed by the one audience member who was twirling glow sticks during the whole show?

"Love In A Trashcan" lit the crowd on fire with its howling guitars and rapid fire drums. I should also mention Heisenflei would hit her drumsticks together to keep the beat when all the other instruments dropped out and then everyone would come roaring back in with a storm of noise.

The Raveonettes saved their best songs for the end with a sparkling version of "Twilight" and closed out the evening with the noisy bliss of "Aly, Walk With Me". The Raveonettes are heading back into the studio to record their next album which I eagerly await.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice photos. I've never seen Julie wear black.