Sleigh Bells - Miya Folick -- U Street Music Hall - Sep 7 2016

Miya Folick - This is her first time in DC, well second as she remembered rushing through an airport here when she was 13. It should not be her last based on the fine performance here. She has a powerful vocal style that works in the slower more psychedelic songs as well as the raging rockers that the band coughs up. She has a rhythm section and a guitarist and she adds second guitar much of the time. The sound is intriguing as it has a spaciness, but is not extremely psychedelic, but on the lighter side. But there is nothing light when they kick it into overdrive and sound more like a merging of Penetration and the Reillos, with a punk hard rock amalgamation. Strong soaring vocals stay atop anything this band can conjure up. Songs are good and the crowd takes to them I think. I know I did.

Sleigh Bells - This band seemed to be the rage a few years back. I have not heard as much about them recently, but then again what I hear and what I don't is not at all reflective of what is going on in the scene. They easily sold out this club as I believe they headlined, if not sold out, the 9:30 Club last time around. Tonight, they hit the ground running with intense music and a light show to match. There are pulsating, pounding electronic beats in the mix with guitarist Derek Edward Miller and one touring axeman adding rugged, jagged, attacking runs. Alexis Krauss is third singer named Krauss I've heard and she goes off 180 degrees from Sharron and Allison. She has intense stage presence and can handle the power and pace of the music with crisp delivery bordering rap, but still singing hard and true. I can't get Queens of the Stone Age out of my head, although this may be closer to Nine Inch Nails in spirit and sonics with a touch of pop and hip hop tossed in. It is intense, musical, and a lot of fun live for the sold out crowd. I enjoyed it a bit more from the side of the stage and not receiving the full blast of the too often unrelenting strobes. But if I were younger...

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