Bodies of Water, Le Loup, and The Ruby Suns
3/28/08
Schubas Tavern
It’s always something to be ecstatic about when you run into a lineup as exceptional as this one last Friday night at Schubas Tavern. The Ruby Suns dimmed the lights but brought out some fantastic psychedelic melodies. Le Loup played a joyfully energetic set as well, definitely not disappointing the crowd in the least while headliners Bodies of Water sang as if their lives might depend on it!
The Ruby Suns, a four piece hailing from New Zealand have an immediately striking sound. It’s based in psychedelic on both their album Sea Lion and in a live setting but it seems based more in psych pop than psych rock, at least on their recorded material. They rocked out a bit more on stage with a definite presence. They may have lost some momentum moving to and fro during their set but they gained it back quickly when the song started playing. In some ways, they remind me of Animal Collective’s side project Panda Bear and in some ways Caribou. They are definitely not the kiwi twee New Zealand is known for, though, Ryan McPhun has connections to The Brunettes. Regardless, there are beautiful female and male vocals between Ryan, Amee Robinson and Imogen Taylor with a sound best described as if Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys were to have gotten lost in 1960s New Zealand on a psychedelic beach and found some lovely women to sing along with him. Look forward to seeing this band play this summer at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Le Loup (“The Wolf”) was a fantastic follow up to Ruby Suns. The large eight piece based in Washington, D.C. crowded the stage with all kinds of real and toy instruments. I was pretty impressed with their record, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millenium General Assembly upon hearing it the beginning of this year and was excited to see they were playing Schubas. Their 45 minute set felt like it was a in a steady state of motion with so many different sounds emerging from the stage. The band created multiple layers of vocals and instrumentation in a way that really re-created the songs off their album and, indeed, made some of them even richer. Though both live and on their album they have some really sweet and slower tracks such as “To the Stars! To the Night!” their live performance especially shined with the more upbeat indiepop of songs like “We are Gods! We are Wolves!”
I wasn’t familiar with Los Angeles four piece Bodies of Water before seeing them and I wasn’t sure what to expect but it soon became clear that they were, indeed, headlining material, and were incredibly talented as well as engaging musically. What sets Bodies of Water apart from most bands is the focus on vocals more than anything else. It’s as if you are hearing a constant forceful chorus. It’s a chorus that seems passionate and rarely dwindles. At times, their songs even recall the passion of Arcade Fire as in “These are The Eyes” Though they are only four in number, their spirit of vocals alone puts them almost equal to the daunting cast of Sweden’s “I’m From Barcelona” The vocals are reassuring, climactic, and climbing to impossibly high octaves on songs like “It Moves.” Though Bodies of Water had a pretty standard setup instrument wise (drums, guitar, bass, and keyboard) the songs were interesting mainly because of the unusual vocal delivery. It was unfortunate that not as many people were present for them as there were for Le Loup but those who stayed were definitely rewarded. Their album, Ears Will Pop~Eyes Will Blink which I purchased the night of the show and have listened to several times since Friday night comes highly recommended. You can also check out their songs on myspace