Concert Review: The Dodos w/ No Kids and Silje Nes

Mystery 3rd guy, and Meric Long rocking out.

Long sings into 2 microphones, one with reverb, one without.

In typical fashion, Kroeber killing it on the drums.

Disclaimer: I know the photos suck, but it was really dark, and we didn't bring a real camera, so we were left to iPhone it....

Last night the menagerie and I headed down to the Mercury Lounge to see the beloved SF duo (now a trio?) The Dodos. I had listened to one of the openers, Silje Nes, on myspace beforehand and had hear through the grapevine that she was decent. I hadn't done any any other prep research. I think that was for the better because No Kids was a great act, and I think I would have written them off based on music alone.

Silje Nes is a multi instrumental, classically trained pianist. That being said, the Norwegian native plays guitar to its fullest, building melodies by recording and playing it back. In this way, she creates a full, warm sound with just herself and a drummer. She knocks, pats and scratches the guitar (both acoustic and electric) to create non-traditional sounds. The drummer (whose name is a mystery, Matz?) was actually my favorite part of the act. He might be her boyfriend, the way that he smiled at her, and just glowed with pleasure on stage. She seems to play for herself, in a self absorbed and terrified way, while he smiled and enjoyed the experience. It was a small crowd, no more than 30 people, but the room was silent and breathless while she played. It was almost like no one wanted to interrupt her. I'm not sure if I would go see her headline, but I would definitely see her open again.

I missed a bit of No Kids (I got hungry, as usual, and had to run out with the whale to Katz's) and according to the Hippo and the Walrus, the lead singer did an awesome dance. I was sad that had missed it, but had an absolutely immediate, and intense crush on lead singer Nick Krgovich. I am having a deep and intense love affair with him. Too bad he doesn't know about it. He is that awkward dorky hipster, with a dry sense of humor, and a wonderfully confident stage presence. The repertoire that he built with the audience was unmatched that evening, telling cute stories and commenting in between songs. The whale looked at me when we walked back in, and announced that he was "ridiculously dweeby". I was already smitten. I am digressing from the music though, sigh. My immediate reaction was that No Kids is just a silly combination of R Kelly and Jens Lekman, but I'm not sure that I can back that claim. On stage I felt like they were a parody of themselves. With largely upbeat, happy, falsetto infused songs, they seem to enjoy the humor of the whole experience. One element of dance plus one element of electro, the simple melodies lack complicated chord progressions and heavy layers on stage. In recording however there is a chamber orchestra backing everything, and giving it the same broadway-musical feel that Jens Lekman has. I think I would go see these guys again (and not only to feed my stalkerish crush on NK).

So last, but not least: The Dodos. As you may have read in my previous posts, I discovered the Dodos in December or January through Jonk, when they posted Fools as their song of the day. I was immediately taken by their sound. As NPR said, it is frenetic, perpetual and furious. Guitarist Meric Long started the band as Dodo Bird, and eventually added drummer Logan Kroeber. That was a good decision. Kroeber has some fucking endurance. Throughout both shows that i saw, Krober drummed furiously, in a full bodied craze for the full hour. He and Long are connected to each and every move that the other makes, they are literally the tightest band I have ever seen. When there is a pause in the music, there is utter silence, and unlike other bands Long and Krober play in unison frequently, and there are no discrepancies. Long frantically picks, plucks and strums his many guitars with a set of disgustingly long fingernails. He also apparently plays the trombone, and has studied African drumming and blues guitar. All of these influences speak in the music, he doesn't stray from non traditional instrumentation either: this last show featured a vibraphone, a child's harpsichord, a gong and a trombone. The child's harpsichord was adorable, and added a wonderful plunking in the background.
This performance was much grander than the last, featuring multiple guitars, the trombone, and the mystery third dude, who had a much more active role in this show. He manned all of the aforementioned unusual instruments, but somehow his presence lacked the magnetism of Long and Kroeber. They managed their way with grace and ease throughout the entire main set without touching their first album, Beware of the Maniacs. For the encore, however, the audience was calling for renditions of The Ball and Men (the obvious jokes were made, both by the audience and the band). For the encore, they played Men, launching directly in the Ball, and from there directly back into Fools, their initial single that dropped in January. They are quiet on stage in terms of talking, in fact I am not sure we heard more than 10 words from them the whole evening, it was just glorious, overwhelming music.

I will see them again, without a doubt. They are apt to be the darlings of 2008 (much in the way that Vampire Weekend was in 2007). I will also confirm that this will be a Top Ten show of the year. I'm eagerly awaiting their return to the stage in NYC, undoubtedly at a bigger venue.

<3 The Elephant