Voxtrot
This was a fun show. Good straight up fun.
The first opening band was Au Revoir Simone, three women on synthesizers. I’d never heard of them, but there were people in the crowd who knew them. They were ok. To be honest, I wasn’t in the mood to enjoy the opening bands. I think I might’ve liked them more if I’d been familiar with their stuff beforehand.
I will say they were perhaps the dorkiest hot white chicks I’ve ever seen. But then it’s hard not to look dorky dancing and playing a synth.
Youtube clip here:
The second opening band was Sound Team. They were ok, but mostly I was just waiting for them to finish so Voxtrot could play. They put a lot of energy into their set, and at one point the singer wanted everyone to stomp their feet, but in LA it’s not likely for a crowd to do something like that just because you’ve asked them to. The Voxtrot singer came out to watch their first song and was dancing and clapping throughout it. If you watch the live clip linked below, you can see he’s the only one in the crowd doing so. He mentioned later that they’re old friends, both bands being from Austin.
Youtube clip here:
Voxtrot have a new album out and they played a lot of new material. It’s all good. I purposely waited till the show to pick up their new album, only to find out they’d sold out of copies their second night of the tour. They did some old favorites, too. I only wish they’d played longer.
The singer, Ramesh, is pretty uninhibited on stage. Never seems to be putting on any poses. He’s basically really dorky, which makes him really fun to watch. You know he’s just being himself up there. The other band members will often be singing along with him, not as back up (they’re not miced), but because they like the song, and I find that really charming.
He likes to throw his arm up in the air.
Old songs they did (linked to youtube clips):
Mother, Sisters, Daughters and Wives
There’s a few more clips on youtube you should be able to access from the above ones (just click on my user name I think), including a new one not on the new album. I have a longer clip of the last song they did before the encore, “The Start of Something,” during which Au Revoir Simone, a guy from Sound Team and someone from the audience danced on stage with the band, but I can’t get it to upload to youtube. You can download all clips in original format and see all the pics I took here:
http://qsysue.tagplazen.org/shows/voxtrot/05-29-07/
Highly recommended if you like catchy indie pop!