Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The Temper Trap and Darker My Love at the Henry Fonda Theater

The newly remodeled Henry Fonda Theater is stunning. Somebody dropped some serious cash to refurbish and completely renovate both the interior and exterior. They added some risers on the sides and moved in a new soundsystem with hanging speakers topped off with a brand new mixing desk.The stage has been raised allowing those on the side risers to have an excellent view.

Darker My Love
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Darker My Love have long been one of my favorite bands with their distinct brand of psychedelic fuzz. In the midst of recording their third album, Darker My Love have been road testing their new material which finds them turning down the fuzz aspect of their sound and embracing their psychedelic side.

Fuzz rockers like "Talking Words" was reworked into a trippy groove that would be unrecognizable to the casual Darker My Love fan. Running through a twelve song setlist padded with new tunes, it was clear they were moving in a new direction. They closed their set with "Helium Heels" and "Summer's Here" for a nice feel of familiarity. I still will be investigating their third album which should be due out soon.


The Temper Trap
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The Temper Trap have made quite the leap from playing Spaceland a few months ago to packing the Henry Fonda Theater for a sold out show. It was nearly impossible to make my way through the crowd from the photopit after shooting the first three songs. The Temper Trap have made a large splash due to their song "Sweet Disposition" appearing on television every five minutes and its placement in the movie 500 days of Summer.

I admittedly attended the show to check in with Darker My Love, but was impressed with the falsetto vocals by lead singer Dougie Mandagi. With an upcoming slot on Coachella, it will be interesting to see how well they draw given the impressive assortment of bands on Saturday.

1 comment:

Jennifer N. said...

I also would've gone for Darker My Love. They were a welcome surprise for me when I saw them open for A Place to Bury Strangers in October. I'm interested to hear the new material, so I'll be checking out that album when it comes out. Thanks for the review!