Friday 08.21.09: Echo & Club Underground present HOCKEY / THE FRENCH SEMESTER @ echo

Hockey || Listen || Watch

Hockey’s another band being chased hither and yon by thin young boys and girls wielding fat wads of cash in a bid to get them to sign to their label. It’s not surprising. Talk about ticking various demographic boxes and appealing to distinctive niche markets. This Portland four-piece, who describe themselves as “new wave/soul” on their MySpace and have been bigged-up of late by Dave (Gang of Four) Allen on his Pampelmoose website, are wordy yet funky, the gritty vocals and chunky beats equally clear and upfront in the mix. Hockey could easily be enjoyed by Dylan, Springsteen and Hold Steady fans as much as they could by devotees of LCD Soundsystem and their ilk. In fact, if James Murphy ever decides to produce the Strokes then this is roughly how it might turn out. It’s been treated by the same sort of FX used to make Julian Casablancas sound as though he’s singing through a megaphone in a wind tunnel. Witty, literate songs you can dance to – they don’t quite give Dylanesque narratives a dubstep undercarriage, but they do effect a collision of opposites that is quite unprecedented. – The Guardian UK

With:
The French Semester || Listen

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Hockey to 467467

8pm / $10 / 18+

Friday 08.21.09: THE SONICS / PRIMA DONNA / JAPANESE MOTORS @ echoplex

The Sonics

The Sonics walked on stage to some seriously deafening applause. The atmosphere was so intense that you could have struck a match in the air and watched the vapor explode. That guitar sound hunched over everyone, scowled, started to feedback, raised a claw then knocked everyone over like dominoes with the riff of ‘He’s Waiting’. 100mph start… and yup, these old guys dressed all in black, were in London taking names. And guess what? The screaming was gooo-oooo-ood.

The set blistered through Strychnine, Have Love Will Travel (which was met with a predictably riotous response from the entire contents of the building including stationary objects), Louie Louie (”we’re going to play rock ‘n’ roll’s national anthem”), Shot Down, Maintaining My Cool, Boss Hoss, Like No Other Man, Money, Lucille, Cinderella, Dirty Robber, You’ve Got Your Head On Backwards… you get the idea. The best two tunes of the evening, both in crowd response and performance were Psycho and The Witch. Psycho, at times, was completely terrifying, with demented screams and howls coming from the contorted Roslie who was possessed by his younger self, with shoulder cocked like a trigger and his throat producing broken glass. Larry Parypa gunned down front and back of house with ferocious guitar work… which he can whip into shape as good as he ever did. Rob Lind, ‘im on sax, provided that rasp that give the ground that full audio assault.

Defying everything I’d thought about the gig (that The Sonics were going full tilt), it seemed that they’d managed to store up enough energy to really dish up some sonic savagery. The Witch was brutal, coarse, mental, twitching, incredibly loud and aggressive. No lies here… it was probably the greatest moment of any gig I’ve ever been too. So hot was the belting of The Witch that people in the front row started to spontaneously combust, with the people at the back toppling inward like dried skeletons whilst everyone in the middle had a mini-riot and screamed along until their voices snapped and lassooed round each other, leaving everyone in some tangled blooded knot. With that, The Sonics hollered farewell and left everyone with their various injuries. – Electric Roulette

with:
Prima Donna || Listen
Japanese Motors || Listen

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text boom to 467467

8:30pm / $22 advance, $24 day of show / 18+