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September 29, 2006
Serena Maneesh played Larimer Lounge with Evangelicals 9.26.06
Faced with either driving to Boulder for Band of Horses or staying local for Norweigan shoegaze playing just up the road I made the obvious choice for my tired self on a school night. Failing in sparking enough energy to even consider getting in a car, let alone driving my straggling ass to the Fox theatre I decided on staying local and taking in Serena Maneesh at Larimer Lounge.
This won't be a typical long-form review as I don't have enough background on the band for a detailed report. I do, however, have plenty of pictures and a few crystallized thoughts for something interesting to hopefully come out of this. From the increasing level of traffic I'm under the impression that you people do exist and for keep returning to read the words displayed on this site. Or someone at urchin stats* hatched an elaborate conspiracy to stroke my digital ego. Sigh.
Serena Maneesh
I cannot even begin this writeup without addressing the wardrobe of lead singer, Emil Nikolaisen. Equal parts Hendrix (puffy shirt and jacket), Tyler (mic stand decor), Rose (bandanna), and Euro-hipster (tight black pants, fashionable shoes). If he wasn't European I'd make a joke about him shopping at the imaginary rockstar frontman store, but for whatever reason musicians from outside the states get a pass on these trivial things. It cannot escape mentioning.
The Serena Maneesh lineup was different from the last trip through America earlier this year. Gone was the blond supermodel via biker gang bassist. The out of place looking fiddle player was still there, though unsure why because you couldn't hear him at all. The singing wasn't audible either for that matter. With the evening agenda of noisy shoegaze, this would not be a negative towards the performance.
So what about the music? For live experimental rock it had more dynamic than I expected, a few melodies even. It wasn't an indecipherable wall of noise. One that schoolkids locked in a garage with maxed out amps could replicate by pushing distorting guitar fuzz through shitty blown speakers. No, it was not that. It was quite better and sonically pleasing, but just weird enough. Multiple guitar changes (sometimes mid-song) aided by a guitar tech - which is strange to see at such a tiny show - and the large array of pedals made it clear that the band invested mightily in gear. From the gigantic tour bus taking up half the block outside it appears the pockets run deep in more ways than one. Spinal Tap moment - Nikolaisen's sparkling glittered scarf got tangled on his guitar strings for a solid minute or so when it perilously crossed paths with the mic stand holding it up. I wondered if this would be a take away for him under lessons learned. Silly.
More pictures after the jump. Stay tuned for Evangelicals coverage.
*Yes. This is a joke about web user statistics. If you laughed/mocked then the answer to your question is yes, you are a bigger nerd.
Posted by Merry Swankster at September 29, 2006 10:33 AM
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Comments
The guitarist dressed all in black with the funny looking mustache was really good. His guitars looked like they were made by hand with a broken chisel. And I get a feeling one of his guitars was inspired by World Of Warcraft, had that Orgrimmar red sky tint to it with a silver pickguard that could have been The Bloodcaller sword.
Posted by: Kelli Douglas at September 29, 2006 12:57 PM
