Raveonettes dazzle First Avenue
By Jeff Gage in Concert Review
Tue., Oct. 27 2009 @ 2:58PM
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| Emily Utne for City Pages |
The Raveonettes' show at First Ave Monday night was as much a matter
of visual aesthetic as it was the band's signature brand of noise
-pop. Black hair tousled and his guitar slung carelessly over his
shoulder, Sune Rose Wagner wore a black and white striped t-shirt as he
spun his one-note leads. Alongside, snow-white blonde Sharin Foo stood
regally in black and cooed her twisted love songs.
It was an assured, well-practiced performance by a pair who exuded a cool
femininity, the two cutting dark silhouettes as the stage lights washed
them out in reds and blues and exploded into white strobes when the
band unleashed its frequent flurries of distortion. Combined with the
music's shifting loud-soft dynamics -- alternating between soft, sugary
melodies and piercing feedback sirens -- it made for an all together
thrilling show.
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| Emily Utne for City Pages |
The Raveonettes attract inevitable and endless comparisons to the Jesus and Mary Chain, but the band is more concerned with subverting the Phil Spector records they so clearly admire than they are existential auteurs, a trait they in some ways share with the Ramones.
A prime example of how the Raveonettes can make such revisions came last night with "Oh, I Buried You." Featuring Foo alone on her guitar, "Buried's" gently swaying waltz and saccharine singing evoked the innocence of an early '60s girl group, but the lyrics were full of confusion, heartache, and feelings of betrayal. On "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)," those sentiments turned to outright hostility, with Wagner's buzzsaw surf guitar providing the perfect foil to the sing along vocals.
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