Review-Atlas Sound, White Rainbow, Valet with LIVE VIDEO

Review of Atlas Sound, White Rainbow, Valet at Casa del Popolo in Montreal, February 27th.

Over the past few months I have become obsessed with Bradford Cox’s deerhunter/atlas sound/lotus plaza blog, where he uploads virtual EPs, outtakes, demos, and mixtapes, all free of charge. I don’t know if it’s considered a norm now for music blogs, but the dude updates tons of new music onto his blog almost every other day, a week, if he’s busy. He is extremely prolific. It almost makes you feel that you too can be a part of this creative force. It is contagious, and inspiring. Naturally, I had been anticipating this show for sometime now in my head. I was curious how he was to translate a record comprised mainly from bedroom recordings onto a live stage with a full backup band.

So they step on stage.

I couldn’t help but observe the set up he had. There wasn’t any. He had a brown Fender Bronco directly plugged into an old Hohner amp, which glimmers with that dreamy 50’s guitar sound along with shoegazing treble when strummed. Antique solidstate amp reverb makes me drool. As Cox and guitarist (Adam Forkner) began noodling on their guitars, the rhythm section followed with a solid 4/4 beat, and a repeating bassline. Keyboardist (Brian Foote) adds his two cents, tinkering here and there, which he does throughout the remaining show. (He is also in the band VALET, which features Atlas Sound Bassist Honey Owens on guitar/vocals and Bradford Cox on the drums. They were the second band that played tonight)

Brian Foote had showed up in crutches tonight, limping on and off the stage, hopping on one leg. I wondered what happened to his leg. Soon the delay on Cox’s vocals submerge the entire room, his words swashed and echoed back and forth haunting the crowd like a ghoul. Adam Forkner (who opened tonight’s show under the moniker WHITE RAINBOW, see him play when you get the chance) had an extensive pedal board comprised of: The big muff, a boss DD-6 Delay, a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay, a volume pedal, line 6’s DL4 delay (the green one), along with many others I don’t even recognize. That’s a lot of delay pedals, I thought. He then successfully loops and interprets Cox’s multi-guitar parts from the record, adding layers of ambience and melodies and intensifies the sonic range of the songs when needed.

Bassist (Honey Owens) and Drummer (Stephanie Macksey) successfully implement the Motown girl group sound, with bopping basslines while floor toms and tambourines rattle through their entire set as they entice the crowd to sway with them as they did on stage. By the time Bradford Cox announced the next song saying “river card” to his bandmates, they had already stole my heart. They seemed relaxed, even did a cheesy band members introduction with each member performing a little solo on their individual instruments when their name was called. They chuckled like little kids.

I walked out for a smoke at the end of the night, with my ears ringing from all the reverb, delay and echo it had just consumed, satiated. I bumped into guitarist Adam Forkner outside and told him what a great show it was, he replied in his gentle voice with a surprised look saying, “oh, thank you” as we awkwardly walked on our separate ways.

The street lights felt blurred, and words seemed to repeat in echos. I thought about when they would come to Montreal and play again, as I trotted through the snow.

Winter vacation by Atlas Sound live at Casa

Posted to Indyish Video by dirty beaches on February 28, 2008

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River card by Atlas Sound Live at Casa

Posted to Indyish Video by dirty beaches on February 28, 2008

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