CONCERT REVIEW: Stereolab / Papa M / Dymaxion, Irving Plaza,
New York City
- Wilson Neate
Since this was the final date on Stereolab's US tour, it promised to be somewhat of a special occasion. Unfortunately, however, the tangible sense of excitement and expectancy at Irving Plaza last night was all but scotched by the opening acts, one that was as irritating as dermatitis and another that could have bored the hind legs off a donkey.
Given that the name of the first band sounded like an antibiotic that you might take to clear up a nasty rash or a minor infection it was perhaps logical--albeit in a backwards sense--that Dymaxion should have a tendency to get under your skin in the worst and most irritating way.
Dymaxion wouldn't look or sound out of place playing an afternoon bash hosted by the Electronics Club at your local high school. If their sound is fueled by any substance, then caffeine is clearly the drug of choice here. Dymaxion seemed to be a Devo-esque novelty act specializing in frenetic and disjointed, jittery and jerky, melody-free songs that were more like extended cartoon sound effects, scattered with very witty electronic noises. Most of the latter were emitted by a pile of gadgetry proudly presided over by a clever boy seated at the front of the stage. It was very impressive. He must have spent all of his allowance at Radio Shack and assembled it all by himself. While Stereolab's sound may owe something to Burt Bacharach, Bert and Ernie are more obvious influences on Dymaxion.
Papa M, brainchild of Dave Pajo of the ... ahem ... seminal Slint, begged the question: why bother playing live if you're not going to make even the remotest of stabs at having any live presence? This was a concert after all and not a sound installation. They seemed genuinely uninterested in being on stage and mailed in, via parcel post, a paradigmatic post-rock, charisma-free, no smiling allowed, occasional backs-to-the-audience 'performance'. It was especially amusing that although Alan Licht had a flying V guitar--that most rock of instruments--he played it with as much character as Strom Thurmond would exhibit, playing the church organ. Intentional, dead pan humor, one can only hope.
Despite the accomplishment and craft of the recent Live From a Shark Cage, Papa M's music just didn't go anywhere live and there was more noodling in 40 minutes than goes on at your local Thai restaurant in a week. At one point it became clear that they'd lost the audience, given that the crowd chat noise was louder than the music. The sense that they didn't want to be there was underscored by the fact that, before the feedback had died out at the end of their set, the drummer had already started to disassemble his kit while Pajo had unplugged his instrument and was already on his way off. But then what can you expect from a man who said, in a recent interview with Pillowfight: "I never had a relationship with an audience, I've always been the self-obsessed ego maniac that I am this day"?
That Stereolab should have come on and salvaged the evening was a pleasant surprise in view of recent critical notices (in Britain) that have reported shows marred by austerity and distance on the part of the band, an absence of spontaneity and a tendency to inject precious little affect into their disinterestedly intellectual and intricate musical textures.
Indeed, Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier has herself recognized their almost 'mathematical' approach: a precise, geometrical construction of shifting aural shapes, melodies and counter-melodies, and repetitive circular structures with incremental changes, as well as their deliberate crafting of sound patterns beyond a simple 4/4 beat.
The cerebral dimension is enhanced by the technology they employ. Stereolab's penchant for retro-equipment (Moog synths, Farfisa organs, etc) goes against the grain of seamless electronica as it yields a sound that always draws the listener's attention to those very devices used to create it. The result is a self-referential meta-music that foregrounds the means of its own construction.
Stereolab's lyrical content is commonly cited as evidence of their overtly and overly cerebral tendencies. While Sadier and Mary Hansen trade catchy pop vocals, the substance of much of what Sadier is saying often attests to a very un-pop depth of thought. Not only are her lyrics frequently loaded with Marxian rhetoric but it's a particularly high brow, academic variant of Marxism that makes even The Gang of Four sound like union leaders spouting the Cliff Notes version of Capital to the rank and file.
Their politics have more to do with the writings of Althusser than with the rantings of, say, The Anti-Nowhere League; they're more Castoriadis than The Clash. Rather than "let's smash the system", Sadier articulates something more along the lines of "let us work together towards a realization of the knowledge effect in order resist the ideology of late capitalism," albeit punctuated with the trademark to-and-fro da de da's of 60s French girl pop.
Still, despite their undeniably thoughtful and, yes, intellectual approach, Sadier also said in a recent interview, "I think sometimes we 'rock' and it is kind of nice to rock" and last night was certainly one of those occasions. Having switched on and kicked off with "Crest", from the pithily titled 1993 album Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, it was clear that Stereolab were going to save the day.
They managed to balance the tightly crafted, rigidly structured and almost clinical nature of their recorded music with a measure of spontaneity essential to live performance. They were a little rough around the edges, had a few minor glitches and hitches, lapsed into distortion and feedback occasionally, interacted with the audience--and with each other--and injected the kind of raw intensity that can only be achieved in the live context.
Some songs were supplemented with elements not present on the recorded versions while others were overhauled. "The Seeming and the Meaning" from Peng! was accelerated and roughed up a bit and "Blue Milk," from the recent Cobra and Phases Group Play Voltage in the Milky Night, was prefaced with a chaotic intro segment absent from the album. Other tracks that stood out live were "Metronomic Underground" with its throbbing Floydian "Come in Number 51" bass line, "Analogue Rock", "Tone Burst" and the new songs "The Free Design" and "Blips, Drips and Strips".
Drawing on tracks dating back to 1991, Stereolab showcased the multifaceted and eclectic texture of their sound. Last night's set featured early material characterized by minimal chord structures and simple time signatures alongside nods to Krautrock, Bacharach and Esquivel-esque lounge/cocktail stylings and more recent forays into bossa nova and jazz with complex time signatures.
Stereolab have been described as a postmodern girl group and that's a pretty fair description. The postmodern character of Stereolab's musical identity is their hallmark: a playful, almost affectless sound built on musical citations and a blurring of the divisions between high and low culture to form a kitschy, pop collage.
But for a so-called girl group, Stereolab's live performance symbolically challenged traditional gender hierarchies. Laetitia Sadier, Morgane Lhote and Mary Hansen occupied the most prominent positions on stage while Tim Gane, Simon Johns, and Andrew Ramsey toiled away in the background, the latter two building particularly strong, driving rhythms. As is his custom, Gane spent the evening in a sonic world of his own at the back, jerking his head compulsively like the insane polar bear at the Bristol Zoo.
The only down-side to their set was that they slightly undermined themselves during the encore. Having almost completed a fine version of "Super Electric" that emphasized their ability to rock and to be danceable, they were joined by members of the opening acts. They then proceeded to indulge in one of rock's (and jazz's) worst cliches, turning "Super Electric" into an extended jam session. To start with it was amusing but it quickly became a real patience-tester, an unfortunate epic of dullness: three drummers drumming, three guitarists guitaring, three percussionists banging, two keyboard players plonking and a partridge in a pear tree, etc. Even so, Stereolab clearly had a good time and this was the last night of the tour, so you can't fault them really. Jam sessions aside though and in stark contrast with last night's openers, Stereolab's performance made a number of timely points: a live concert really ought to provide an audience with something different from the experience of listening to a record; it's a good idea to have stage presence and to communicate at least some identifiable form of emotion; it's possible to play intelligent music and communicate its intelligence live without being pretentious; it's possible to play quirky, idiosyncratic music without being plain silly; and it's quite possible to play thoughtful music that is danceable.
