Antlers - Little Scream -- Black Cat - May 17 2011

Little Scream - This is a woman singer/guitarist songwriter more than a band, although the three members she has assisting on guitar, keyboards and drums for the past few months may become permanent. These things could go either way and I really don't know much about this act from Montreal. Immediately, they strike me with a Kate Bush-like spacey number. They also go into quirky pop realms like the Foals or a more rhythmic Faun Fables (mostly with the vocal delivery). Happy oddballs, these four. One song even reminded me of Wire, if Wire were ever happy (in the giddy sense as Wire certainly employs dark and sardonic humor). There is a touch of Devandra Banhart in the vocal delivery as well. The music is fresh and fun and goes over well with the swelling crowd. I enjoyed it, although they went on early and played for only 28 minutes.

The Antlers - Worst T-shirt design ever. The club is over 80% packed for this growing indie band. They have drums, keyboards, and a couple of guitars with one guy switching to bass. Three guys sing, but one guy takes the lead mostly with an airy voice. The music may be closer to Super Furry Animals than Animal Collective maybe? I am not terribly up on quirky indie pop these days. They also remind me of Maps & Atlases. There are some interesting sounds and musical moves from time to time, but overall I am not feeling much a part of this. The crowd is interested, but don't appear to be very compelled by it all. I will be curious to see how a band like this evolves over time. I am guessing they will not move up like Animal Collective. But they may have enough of a creative spark to pull it off. I would have liked to do exit polls to see what the audience thought. And if I am spending my time trying to figure out all of this, then I am not getting into the music much, so I'll leave it at that.

Quote of the Night: From the openers... "I want you guys to imagine a giant baby costume playing a flute."