The Phoenix Network:
About | Advertise
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Download  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features  |  New England Music News

Gear heads

Battles, Paradise, July 18, 2007
By WILL SPITZ  |  July 24, 2007


VIDEO: Watch the Battles live at Paradise, July 18, 2007.

Slideshow: Battle at Paradise, July 18, 2007
In May 2005 I went to the Paradise to see Prefuse 73. I don’t remember much about the show, but I do recall the openers — some band with a mountain of gear and an arsenal of brain-bending rhythms who called themselves Battles — decidedly blowing Scott Herren and his band out of the water. The club was half full at best, but two years later, with everyone from the New Yorker and the Guardian to Pitchfork and Stylus and their grandmas (yours truly included) waxing orgasmic about the band’s new debut full-length, Mirrored (Warp), the same room was uncomfortably crowded for their headlining set last Wednesday.

Given all the hype, the strength of Mirrored, and my own faded memory of that 2005 show — I missed them when they played Great Scott in April — my expectations were high. Maybe too high. Because, though they successfully replicated the mindfuck complexities of the album, I left disappointed. It was impressive for sure: four guys creating a mini-orchestra’s worth of sound in front of our eyes — without the aid of samples, as guitarist/bassist Dave Konopka proudly informed me in an interview a month ago. Instead they used looping effects and Ian Williams and Tyondai Braxton’s nifty simultaneous guitar/keys technique to build heavily-layered, intricate sonic tapestries that sounded remarkably similar to those on the album. But with the band spending as much time futzing around with knobs as they did showing any evident engagement with the music, the whole thing seemed a bit clinical. With the exception of Mirrored’s standout single, “Atlas,” where drummer John Stanier’s infectious schaffel beat made the whole room bounce, the show felt more like surgical observation than rock show — striking in execution but emotionally unaffecting.

  Topics: Live Reviews , Dave Konopka , Ian Williams , John Stanier ,  More more >
  • Share:
  • RSS feed Rss
  • Email this article to a friend Email
  • Print this article Print
Comments
Gear heads
Hey Will, Were you at the same show as the rest of us? Maybe you missed the part where the band rocked the joint with incredible tightness and pulsing rhythms. Oh wait, that was the duration of their entire set! It's apparent you're yearning to be the first journalist to trash these guys. Congrats on having that distinction. Get a clue and pay attention next time.
By Fozzie27 on 07/20/2007 at 9:23:05

Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY WILL SPITZ
Share this entry with Delicious

 See all articles by: WILL SPITZ

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



Featured Articles in Museum And Gallery:
Saturday, November 22, 2008  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2008 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group