The Softlightes at the Echoplex

I thoroughly enjoyed The Softlightes at the Detroit Bar the last time I saw them. It has been an excellent month with Monday night residencies so I drove out to the Echoplex to catch the final night with the Softlightes.
 


El Ten Eleven fooled me at first because I thought it was The Softlightes. It turns out that El Ten Eleven is Kristian Dunn (Guitar/Bass) and Tim Fogarty(Drums) from the Softlightes. Kristian was playing a 1977 Carvin Guitar/Bass doubleneck that was connected to 2 Digitech Whammy Pedals, 2 Boss Looping Pedals and a Line 6 Delay pedal. Kristian would sample his bass or guitar and proceed to lay stacks of loops on each other. Tim mixed acoustic and electronic drums to give the music a warm organic vibe. It was as if Battles and Pinback fought and El Ten Eleven won. Kristian also tapped into his inner Les Claypool with a fretless bass playing and some proficient two handed tapping. El Ten Eleven has 2 releases that I will have to investigate "El Ten Eleven" from 2005 and "Every Direction Is North". I wonder if El Ten Eleven took off what would become of the Softlightes?


Porterville from Los Angeles were next with their synth sprinkled indie dance rock. It reminded me of a Ghostland Observatory crossed with the Rapture and a dash of Weezer. When they played their song "The Preafterlife", a section of the crowd started to bust out their dance moves. I wonder if they really are from Porterville, California?





The Softlightes swayed the crowd with their sugar coated songs and sweet dynamics. Ron Fountenberry (Vocals/Guitars) was wistfully strumming his lefty Epiphone Hollowbody to coax out their tender songs. Jeff Hibshman (Keyboards) had his drool worthy Korg Oasys keyboard setup and was employing some split layers to add extra dimensions to their tightly spun songs. "Heart Made Of Sound" is a great example of their solid songwriting skills. "The Robots In My Bedroom Were Playing Arena Rock" maybe a wink at Daft Punk but I think more songs should heavily employ the vocoder. Tim Fogarty (Drums) and Kristian Dunn (Bass) locked in for "GirlKillsBear" which sounds even better live. The Softlightes even managed to bribe the audience with cookies. The cookies were holiday spice if I remember correctly. When is the last time you received cookies from a band?

Great Northern at the Detroit Bar

The Detroit Bar kept up its hot streak on Thursday night. It was a Pull Your Pants up sponsored event featuring the ecclectic line up of The Love Me Nots, The Softlightes, and Great Northern. Inflight at Night has been running a nice publicity campaign for the Love Me Nots and I was intrigued to check out their live show. The Softlightes hail from San Diego and I had heard good things about them. Great Northern doesn't need any introduction unless you are a new reader within the past month.

The Love Me Nots




The Love Me Nots came out blazing like an old '67 Mustang. Micheal Johnny Walker (Guitars) was abusing his Mosrite guitar so much that it didn't take long for a string to break. Micheal proceeded to switch his Mosrite for a Fender Telecaster. Nicole Laurenne (Vocal/Keyboards) had a commanding stage presence armed with an old school microphone and a dry martini. She did manage to put the martini down and lay down some groovy organ lines. Jay Lien (Drums) managed to climb over his drum kit during a breakdown in one of the songs and hop back on his throne to resume his manic drumming. Christina Nunez (Bass) was the yang to Nicole's yin groovy organ lines. If they don't make the soundtrack for the next James Bond movie something is very wrong.


The Softlightes




The Softlightes had me from the second Jeff Hibschman (Keyboards) pulled out his Korg Oasys keyboard. I occasionally get gear envy from time to time but I turned a new shade of green when I saw the Oasys. Jeff put his Oasys to work when he did lead vocoder vocals on a song. The Soflightes had a projection screen running different images including Darth Vader and Mr. T that added to the quirky atmosphere of their lovingly damaged pop tunes. I frequently caught myself tapping my foot along with the beat during their set. Ron Fountenberry (Guitars/Vocals) was strumming his lefty Epiphone guitar while cracking jokes in between songs. The Softlightes are on Modular records which is home to The Presets and Wolfmother. They will be playing Spaceland on Sept 19th for Club NME. I hope to see them again soon.

Great Northern




Great Northern capped the night their cinematic heartfelt tunes. "Just A Dream" was the opening tune of their set with its delicate piano lines meshed with Solon Bixler's (Guitars/Vocals) driving guitars. Solon started to strum the opening chords of "Telling Lies" as Davey Latter (Drums) added some layers of xylophone to the dense mix. "A Sun A Sound" was next and is a great example of how well Rachel and Solon harmonize their vocals to build a large sound. Solon was frequently tweaking his Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man to add some echo laden feedback in the right places. Great Northern will open for Ladytron down in San Diego at 4th & B on Sept 26th as well as play the Lobsterfest on Sept 15th before embarking on another tour across the states.