Efterklang/Peter Broderick/Bellflur - DC9 - March 26 2009

Bellflur - Beat happy pop rock with too many instruments for synth pop and they seem too nice and poppy for shoegaze. Nice Banshees guitar in one song, good strings. Lightly entertaining beginning to the night which helps as they started quite late.

Peter Broderick - Not only did he complain/apologize/take a few minutes to fix some distortion that was annoying him (I barely noticed), but through extensive use of his recording/playback device he employed, he actually looped one of his complaints. Ugh, play through it. A good voice akin to Nick Drake with ego or confidence, but the drones tired me a bit. The crowd enjoyed it and there was some talent here.

Efterklang - I have heard this band before but couldn't remember the details. Ok, the singer has an accent I can't place, they look foreign. They have seven members and trade lots of instruments. Hmmm, maybe they sound like the new Canadian scene--Arcade Fire, et. al. No, they are from Denmark augmented with someone from Sweden (if I heard correctly, probably didn't) and two Americans (heard that right). Well that sort of adds up to Canada in a way and the sound was very fitting with the northern scene. It grew stronger and more fun as the night went on. My mood brightened considerably and I really enjoyed the quality and attitude of this band. They played lots of brand new material that had more electronics than their older material, but still had that eclictic pop-rock-prog sound. Recommended.

Quote of the Day: Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun who wasn't sure what Yahoo was and insisted is "something I probably couldn't get ahold of." He went on to quote sports books published between 1948 and 1965. If he can't handle the internet (where Yahoo investigated major recruiting violations at his school), he should at least try reading the NCAA Guide to recruiting which he also says confuses him. That's enough March madness for this column.