I saw clap your hands say yeah! last night. some thoughts.
openers:
takka takka – weak sauce.
architecture in helsinki – pleasant surprise, this was one of those bands that I had heard the name of for years (from the KSU archie kids ) but never quite listened to. They were quite spastic, but put on an entertaining show. It was almost like a fiery furnace diet type of band,but you could feel the definite influence of the clash and talking heads / david byrne
clap – they put on a pretty rocking show. granted it was fairly pretentious (basically no interaction with the audience, and what little he did say was incomprehensible) but I liked the way they played their first album’s songs live, and some interesting newer songs.. the one that stood out to me contained the word satan being repeated over and over. It sounded like it might have some promise. The first of the newer songs they played I wasnt impressed by at all, and it was annoying how they opened the show, really only because they played “gimme some salt” and I think kind of bastardized the song for the sake of bastardizing. I dont know if the harmonies just didnt work, or what but I was really hoping to hear it played the way it was on the record which I really like. but those lows were quickly quelled as they kicked ass the rest of the show..
they did play the opening track “clap your hands” which was pretty neat, complete with megaphone gimick..
one last thing, I kind of dont see why they need to be a 5 piece, I would think that the reduction of one of their members would open up some of their songs and make them sound a little better live.. but oh well they must be doing something right.. we’ll see if they have the sophmore slump, then time will tell if they are truley a quality band.