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July 21, 2006

A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Live @ the Cake Shop, New York City, 07.16.2006

Prior to A Sunny Day in Glasgow's maiden voyage into live performance, sonic architect Ben Daniels sent out a memo to his booster club (later published by club treasurer Matt Fluxblog) telling all of us what a terrible show we were in for Sunday night. Their drummer was to be a spastic iPod for one. Two, his sisters/vocalists had never performed in front of a crowd, or even sung and played keys at the same time. Three, they had only practised twice. Quite the unusual set up letter, which was either a slyly calculated attempt to dampen expectations on the heels of a great debut EP in order to further thrill the assembled with the resulting sneak attack, or a panicked attempt to cover ass in advance of a train wreck. As I scanned the sparsely populated Cake Shop basement for a quivering trio with similar facial structures, the mystery deepened.

My attempts at amateur sleuth were soundtracked by Boston indie rockers, Hands and Knees. I knew nothing about the group going in, but I liked them well enough. They had a nice snappy rhythm section, taseful guitars that broke loose from their cage occasionally, and guy girl trade off vocals that didn't descend into cutesiness. They won my affection further with a one-two punch of nicely executed 80's proto-indie covers; a spirited yelping version of the Vaselines' "the Day I Was a Horse", and an indulging of my Kiwi Rock jones with Tall Dwarfs' "All My Hollowness to You."

Slightly piqued interest filed away, the likely suspects took stage and set up in the promised minimal fashion. Keyboard, guitar, iPod, siblings, stop. But once play was hit on our drummer the pod, minimal it was not.

EP track "Laughter (Victims)" kicked off the short set, with its simply shifting guitar line dominating the sound and the vocals sounding still somehow far away despite coming from three feet in front of me. I mistakenly assumed a live transition of these tracks might be more direct, but the disorienting democracy of sounds in the mix on record was well preserved. Follow up "A Mundane Phone Call to Jack Parsons" amped up the waves of hazy guitar further, and sweetened the pot with the family sing along "ooh - ooh -ah - ooh"-ing at its close.

Since that song is the most drum reliant on the EP, it's a good time to address Ben's disaster prediction number 1. Although the familiar pod played drum tracks were loose enough in their initial recording that it wouldn't be fair to say they were canned, the desired "overwhelming sound" effect really would benefit from a rib rattling live pounder. This is of course a one time qualm, as a real live drummer has already been procured for future shows.

The next set segment included two new ones, and a cover, all working within the basic confines of the established sound. Guitar dominated, the girls sang and switched off on keys as needed. Their vocal contributions used more as a pretty tonal ingrediant than a purveyor of lyrical information. Perhaps some nerves were a factor, but its not like their were any Cat Power crying jags. An announced cover version seemed naggingly familiar to me, with a hard to place melody cradled in its shoegaze bed. The illumination post show that it was a Field Mice song I'd never heard advanced the theory of ASDIG's sound as treasured college radio tape lost to the ages.

Final number, "The Best Summer Ever" proved to be the most immediate of the set, with Lauren and Robin's vocals more easily decipherable. Of course the feedback laden guitar was the main event, but the girls had more of a presence here that gave the song a nice balance. There, it ended, out we went (with early morning apologies to the subsequent Shot Heard 'Round the World and My Teenage Stride). ASDIG had managed to replicate the winningly odd sound of their recorded output, without the prophecized disaster. It'll take some more seasoning and another permanent band member for the material to take on a life of its own in person, but it will also take one hell of a letter for further expectations of quality to be supressed.

Tags: A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Cake Shop, Hands and Knees

Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 21, 2006 11:17 AM

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