Monday night is usually not a good night for a gig, especially if you are a band active at a local level. My wife who has bought the tickets for tonight’s Warpaint gig at the Shepherds Bush Empire (notice how I dropped the mobile telephone company from the venue name), and without whose enthusiasm for Warpaint I wouldn't be going, or indeed later writing a review, feels the same. She wants an early night, after a long working day. The solution, or at least the compromise, is to avoid any alcohol, which I suppose is a good idea on a Monday night, and, if you like decent beer - 'cos they don't sell it at gigs.
Warpaint’s support is a four-piece Brooklyn band - very hip - called Twin Shadow (crap name) that has a female synth player who has clearly studied her 80s counterparts and passed her exams with distinction. Their songs are pure 80s pastiche; The problem is, I hear the Associates, Simple Minds, the Cure, Ultravox (and some even less cool 80s bands) but I see a bunch of trendy middle-class New York indie kids. I love the synths - I have a thing about the old 80s Roland synths - but these guys are the new-romantic version of Wolfmother, plagiarists, who use their youth as license to rehash a genre that doesn’t need rehashing. They are followed by a Best of the 80s CD played over the venue’s PA, which reminds us that the cream of the 80s synth-pop-rock (Japan, Soft Cell, Duran Duran etc) cannot, indeed, be beaten.
Warpaint is another story. There is something 80s about their sound, but mid-to-late 80s. They remind me of 4AD band Lush, but they more rightfully belong in a Spotify playlist along with the exponents of the current reverb-drenched sound of California indie-rock, that includes Best Coast and Girls. It’s a refreshing sound, but I fear I will weary of all that reverb, and etherealness. Tonight, though, I am able to (mostly) overlisten (to coin a term) the reverb-laden voices, as beautiful as they are, while I fall in love with Stella Mozgawa, Warpaint’s most excellent drummer. I get an extreme bout of drummer-envy, and spend the entire gig letting the songs wash over me as I fixate on the incredible energy in her drumming. She’s not all-Bonham - she as much Reni - but there is a moment or two when she pulls out a fill that sits back with the aplomb of John Bonham, or even John Densmore, whose Unknown Soldier-style military drumming she employs from time to time to add credence to the band’s moniker. And they do at times make a transcendental noise, punctuated by quiet and crescendo, that reminds me (a bit, anyway) of the Doors and other 60s West Coast psychedelic bands like Jefferson Airplane.
Anyway, suffice it to say, Mozgawa rocks. And she, and her friend in the rhythm section, Rickenbacker-toting, Jenny Lee Lindberg, thankfully, are responsible for grabbing me by the bollocks and saving me from being washed away down the River Reverb.
My wife has been playing the CD at home; I’ve been half-listening. I recognise at lot of the songs tonight as a result, which helps, but this gig has definitely inspired me to give the CD a whirl myself. I’m not sure this band has longevity, but they have a couple of good albums in them, and maybe more if they eventually bring the reverb down to about 3/10.
And see! Monday night can be a good gig night, after all.
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