Cram a sundry lot of hipsters into a brick building on an
unrelenting summer night and things will cook unevenly. This was
the case last Friday night when many, many people gathered to see
the New Pornographers. Sound sordid? It wasn’t, though it did get a
bit steamy. Off Broadway, the unassuming music venue in South City,
was busting at its particle board and stained glass seams as the
hipsters soaked up the perfect antidote to heat rash crankiness:
pop music.
Pop at Off Broadway? Yes, it seems that even the most
persnickety music dorks love a good hook, and the New Pornographers
ensnared them with their arsenal of snapping rock. They have all
the good makings of a supergroup: a girl and boy sharing the lead,
an amazing drummer and interesting keyboards backing them up. She
has a guitar and her with a voice as raw and true as the American
craving for pop.
It doesn’t hurt, either, that she is Neko Case, an actual indie
pop princess who has chosen to shun any possible spotlight that her
femininity might garner.
Case’s previous successes as a solo act certainly brings in the
crowd, but the band isn’t lacking credibility without her. He is
Carl Newman, and his stage presence is certainly larger than Case’s
mild thrashing about with the tambourine. The other singers and
musicians bring in the fullness of sound that makes this new porn,
music that is, all the more intriguing: Blaine Thurier, John
Collins, Kurt Dahle and Todd Fancey round out the full stage.
Their sound is fast and the vocals frequently sound like a tape
sped up, but this fuel doesn’t drag the songs ahead when they need
to mellow–yes, really–in a bridge for a few seconds. And
nothing’s off beat. Every syncopated keyboard solo and background
“ooo, ooo,” is the perfect meld of punk and the Beach Boys.
The catchiest of their tracks, “All for Swinging you Around”
poured into the crowd well, with Case pulling out the most powerful
of her vocals. As the sweaty crowd reluctantly came to its feet
more than half way through the show, White and the band thanked
them by creating more heat and scalding tunes in “The End of
Medicine” and “Jackie.”
