Vivian Girls and Titus Andronicus at BCHQ
We went out to Bull City Headquarters last night for what was billed as a garage rock super show. The night started off slowly with local band Spiderbags opening. Their music was too Old Crow Medicine Show for my taste, but I’m sure they go over huge with the Chapel Hill college kids. They suffered from poor set list management. Of course, no matter how much you rearrange the list, it’s probably difficult to get much out of a set that includes only one good song (”Professionals”), but still, don’t announce that that you’ve got one more song and then decide to play another one after that. That’s the equivalent of a professor telling her students that they’re going to end early and then going 5 minutes over. I know from experience that the kids don’t like that.
Vivian Girls were up next and, again, were not my thing. It sounded like they were aiming for a faster Jesus and Mary Chain, except replacing the fuzz with reverb. I think they had some trouble getting their sound right, though, because the vocals sounded pretty awful. The blonde girl’s vocals were ok, although I’m not a big fan of all the reverb, but the red-headed girl’s were terrible. Even ignoring the vocals, the set never rose above mediocre. Their between-song banter was pleasant and they seemed very happy while they were performing, however, so I’m glad they’re enjoying themselves.
[All photos by Daniel]
Vivian Girls
Finally, Titus Andronicus brought some garage rock to the stage (/floor). When they began setting up I was skeptical of the number of band members (6) and the number of pedals (1 billion). But they made excellent and creative use of both: their arrangements were layered and complex, plus they had a light show hooked up to some of those pedals! I’ve never seen a band with their own light show before and I was very excited when their little halogen desk lamps started switching on and off to the beat.
Titus Andronicus
The singer’s voice was truly impressive. I get so used to hearing bands just screaming lyrics that I forget what good singing actually sounds like. The songs were immediately catchy without being simplistic. Titus Andronicus achieved the rare feat of infusing high energy into dense, orchestral sound. Daniel called them exuberant and I think that’s the best adjective for them. They more than made up for the lackluster opening bands.
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus
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