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July 14, 2008
Sissy Wish, Live @ the Knitting Factory Tap Bar, NYC 07.08.2008
It's near impossible to be the only one enjoying anything in New York. There's an exposing article devoted to every sublime sandwich shop housed in the back of a Vietnamese electronics store, and supposedly secret sales have lines two days before they open their doors. It's might be even tougher to be the only correspondent reporting back from a worthwhile cultural happening. Bands who couldn't fill a community center in Des Moines see their tickets evaporate within seconds of sale and half the crowd seems to be recording streaming video that will be posted in hours. Greedy elitists one and all are forced to grumble and accept that some one else is hip to their find. That's just the way that it is. So, my initial reaction to being one of maybe 8 people present for last week's set from superb Norwegian pop duo Sissy Wish was selfish delight. The blog masses had devoured Robyn and exalted Yelle, but singer/songwriter Siri Alberg's sharp confection have yet to attract a line of online ants, I guess.
But as the she and her Scandi bandmate promptly filled their opening slot last Tuesday night at the Knitting Factory's Tap Bar I couldn't help but feel sorrow that more people weren't present to witness such genuinely exciting and accessible music. Drawing heavily on last year's (domestically unavailable) Beauties Never Die, Siri's set was designed for a much bigger crowd. Though the music was generally filtered through one of the stages two present laptops, the setup was far more thoughtful than your usual Williamsburg Mac experimentalists. There were keyboards, electronic drum pads, and three vocal mics wired for different effects, as well as an electric guitar the striking Norwegian shredded at her discretion. The elastic beats of terrific single "Float" had real weight. The rock moments of Forkcasted anthem "DWTS" weren't canned at all. What impressed my most was that even in a relatively slick "pop" performance, she wasn't afraid of veering towards blasts of white noise for effect. It was sugary at times, but never safe. If some domestic record exec is trolling the web right now, looking for a readymade star, you can guess who I might suggest.
As big as the songs sounded, it was Siri's goofy intensity that sold the neglected performance. Starting in a frilly black jacket and gradually stripping down to an oversized "I [heart] Tech-No" tee, she was perpetually charming the room's void. As painful as it can be to take in a overreaching drone show in an empty room, it's perhaps even more awkward in a way for hits to fall to the floor unloved. As much energy as she could give her enthusiastic hip-hop dancing during would-be singalong "Yayaya," as much emotion as she could wrench from the winding chorus of "Table 44," it was still tough to watch her grasp for the reaction these tracks are sure to generate in the land of milk and herring. Despite the shoddy turnout Siri was cutely humble throughout. "We just met Mary-Kate Olson outside," she gushed. "I've only ever seen celebrities in the movies!" So if no-one but me was similarly giddy to be in her presence, at least the trip overseas wasn't a total loss.
A smattering of songs from Beauties Never Die, to hopefully start a new trickle of fans for Siri's next visit...
Sissy Wish - "Beauties Never Die"
* Klein, I meant to bring this one up back before the "44" post. Oh well, nothing was dethroning the Zombies. This is quite capable as a runner up.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 14, 2008 04:05 PM
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Comments
Thanks, JK--With my numerical x-ray vision I quickly spied this on the server and grabbed it immediately--found it quite excellent, and no doubt 44 will be tweaked to include this one.
Posted by: david at July 14, 2008 04:50 PM
well said on the NY scene, gotta get em early and then let them go to the masses
Posted by: butter team at July 15, 2008 04:55 PM
Rock and roll. I've never heard them before, but you can count me in as a new fan.
Posted by: Katie at July 16, 2008 12:19 PM
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