This week, we have a guest reviewer, Easy Breezy. Since none of the usual Rock Reporters were able to make it out to the xx show last Thursday night, Breezy was more than willing to fill in and give us his take on what went down at the Cats Cradle in Carrboro by one of the most talked about bands around right now. Take it away, Breezy…
JJ opened and that was just weird. They played their music through some type of electronic method, digital file, mp3, something, I don't know. The singer awkwardly stood on stage and sang the songs along to the tracks. She honestly looked like she'd rather be elsewhere. Then the guy in the band would get on stage with a guitar every once in a while and I swear to you, the music sounded NO differently while he was "playing" the guitar. It was like he wasn't plugged in or something. The entire time there was slow motion video playing behind them. Sometimes it was animals, sometimes it was scenes of them lovingly frolicking and fawning over each other. It was one of the weirdest live music performances I've ever seen in my life. We only saw about 4 or 5 songs and it was more than enough. Maybe their cd would be ok, the tracks were catchy electronic type deals, pretty weird, but listenable I guess.
Then the XX came out... and killed it. Not in the sense of rock star Monotonix type stuff. Just in the sense that they created a feeling that encompassed the whole room. You felt like you were really watching a group of people do something special that they loved to do. The sound was effing pristine. At times they were recreating the album to the letter; other times they mixed it up a little and the live version had its own flavor. Their voices are a huge part of their music, at least for me, and they did a great job of not sounding too breathy, or out of breath. They came through strong and powerful.
If there's anything negative to say, it's that it was a short set. I don't think they have a ton of music to play.
Then the XX came out... and killed it. Not in the sense of rock star Monotonix type stuff. Just in the sense that they created a feeling that encompassed the whole room. You felt like you were really watching a group of people do something special that they loved to do. The sound was effing pristine. At times they were recreating the album to the letter; other times they mixed it up a little and the live version had its own flavor. Their voices are a huge part of their music, at least for me, and they did a great job of not sounding too breathy, or out of breath. They came through strong and powerful.
If there's anything negative to say, it's that it was a short set. I don't think they have a ton of music to play.
Thanks for the low down! Sounds like we might have missed something exciting! Maybe next time, I’ll get tickets sooner, or maybe The Rock Report will be so popular that we get free tickets!! Whoohoo!!
Great review Breezy. T feel the same way about their respective albums.
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