The Devastations

[sharplittleteeth]

andricongirl has basically stolen my review of this gig. Not that I'll let that stop me.

We saw The Devastations play at the Rob Roy last night.

Actually, "saw" is an exageration. The Rob Roy was packed. All I saw was the singer/bassist's neck and torso. His head was obscured by a speaker. His legs -- and the guitarist, drummer and piano player -- were hidden by the crowd.

So. We heard the Devastations play last night.

Reviews and band photos has led me to believe they sounded like the Dirty Three or Nick Cave. Last night, they sounded more like Chris Isaacs. Slow bass. Reverb-soaked guitar. Deep-voiced crooning. They played love songs, dark and haunting love songs for late night drinking.

As the set progressed, the echoing Chris Isaacs-style guitar gave way to some Blixa-esque bursts of noise. But the tempo rarely rose above a crawl, and the squalls of guitar never quite gelled with smoothness and the narcoleptic pace.

Don't get me wrong. They were good. I liked them. They just didn't grab me.

I bought the CD anyway, listened to it this morning, and liked it much better. It has more of the Dirty-Three-with-vocals feel I was expecting. On CD, the band is fleshed out with violin and a female singer, and the contrast between quiet and noise works better.

Maybe it's just that the Devastations have a rotating line up, and the line up we saw last night haven't quite settled in with each other. Don't know. They're off for a European tour, so maybe we'll check them out again when they return.


And in other news:
Got a bit over-enthusiastic with the Tai Chi on Friday. Stubbed toes. Badly. Foot still hurting. :/

Comments

[andricongirl.livejournal.com]

andricongirl has basically stolen my review of this gig.
hey who posted first huh..
:P