The Noisettes
6/9/7
Schubas Tavern in Chicago
Wow! The three piece band The Noisettes from London played fairly like I imagine them playing back in their home country on Saturday: as if they were playing to thousands. Everything was perfectly tight to match every chord perfectly on their album What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? Drummer Jamie Morrison didn’t miss a beat and Dan Smith complimented some of those harder edged bass riffs (played by Shingai Shoniwa herself) but make no mistake…it was Shingai who was the real attraction up there and what truly made the band worth watching and hearing.
Dressed in a lacy black leotard bodice and adorned with feathers in her braided hair, she looked like a rock queen. He voice is as much soulful as it is boastful. Though they are characterized as British indie rock band, it would be a shame not to acknowledge the heavy glam essence to the vocals and chords, almost as if you are hearing and watching a glam rock opera. Freddie Mercury would love this band if he were still alive. Yet, it has a much heavier drive to it with those really audacious riffs it’s heavy handed melodrama at its best. The only real low key moments were found during “Cannot Even” (Break Free)
At the same time, they have elements of indie pop even when Shingai squeals and her voice was perfectly timed but showing so much frantic energy that it perfectly matched the rest of her body while she danced on top of the drum kit and climbed the sides of the stage (microphone still amazingly in hand) I hadn’t seen such heights scaled at Schubas since Mucca Pazza played the Tomorrow Never Knows festival.
All in all, the set seemed to go by way too fast even though they played perhaps all of the material they had composed. Noisettes are a young band and are quite famous in England but it takes someone as on top of their game as Schubas to know to get them now before they start selling out places like the Metro and the Riv. There’s been a couple of other shows I’ve seen at Schubas in the past few years where this was exactly the case and you could just feel the presence of future greatness in the air when The Shins, Stars, and The Dears played. Like those nights, this will be a special night for us to remember Shingai was that close to you.
Setlist: Note: this is approximate as they played their songs out of order from this list. For example, “Bridge to Canada” was played very last as an encore.
