Yup, that’s right, a pair of hard to classify bands with to classify sounds and long names with unusual abbreviations swung through Chicago’s Bottom Lounge last night. Billed as a co-headlining tour, Black Moth Super Rainbow closed the night with their lo-fi psych grooves after School of Seven Bells finished filling the room with their own kaleidoscopic melodies.
Spreading out across the front of the stage with Alejandra and Claudia Deheza flanking Benjamin Curtis, SVIIB set the night in motion with computerized drums and walls of guitar and synth noise. The New York trio drew their setlist from their stellar debut Alpinisms and the twin sisters’ hypnotic vocals were as captivating as they were on the disc.
The ladies’ soaring voices took the lead, but Curtis was not to be outdone, slashing away at his guitar and conjuring up swirls of noise to wash along beneath the drifting crystalline lyrics. Prerecorded drums kept the arrangements a bit rigid and no one moved much from their stations, but the power of the songs and the force of the music carried the crowd along. By the time they closed things out with the expansive and journeying “Sempiternal/Amaranth” SVIIB had set smooth and powerful tone.
In Following SVIIB, Black Moth Super Rainbow provided a study in contrast. Rather than working the front of the stage, the band was squeezed off to the side with movie projections taking center stage and a quartet of tranny dancers occupying the other side.
Prior to settling in behind their ragged synths, guitar and drums, BMSR was introduced via an extended video featuring ISP fan photos and commentators both deriding and praising the band and their audience. Once on the stage, they worked through a set mostly of songs from their recent Eating Us and it’s predecessor Dandelion Gum.
Odd images paraded past on the screen behind the band, and they rarely looked up from their instruments to acknowledge the crowd, the wild dancers or the projected chaos from the videos. Their vocoder processed vocals came from no specific source, but their mix of organs, synths and snappy breakbeats were welcomed by the dancing and hooting crowd that fed off the energy of the sounds rather then that of the players.
The two bands spend the next three weeks on the road. Catch them here:
Thu. May 21 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Fri. May 22 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
Mon. May 25 Quincy, WA @ Sasquatch Festival
Tue. May 26 Portland, OR @ Holocene
Thu. May 28 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
Fri. May 29 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Sat. May 30 Costa Mesa, CA @ Detroit Bar
Sun. May 31 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
Tue. June 2 Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Wed. June 3 Denton, TX @ Hailey’s
Thu. June 4 Little Rock, AR @ Sticky Fingerz
Fri. June 5 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Sat. June 6 Columbus, OH @ Skully’s
Black Moth Super Rainbow continue on…
Fri. June 19 Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light
Sat. June 20 Birmingham, AL @ City Stages Music & Arts
Sun. June 21 Newport, KY @ Southgate House
Sat. June 27 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
Tue. June 30 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
Fri. July 24 New York, NY @ South Street Seaport – Seaport Music Festival, Pier 17
Sat. July 25 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas w/ Dan Friel
Sun. July 26 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel w/ Dan Friel
Mon. July 27 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar w/ Dan Friel
Other upcoming School of Seven Bells shows…
June 12 New York City, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
August 7 Tokyo, JP @ Marine Stadium (Summer Sonic)
August 8 Mashima, JP @ Summer Sonic
October 2 Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
October 4 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Read More:
CD Review: Black Moth Super Rainbow :: Eating Us
CD Review: School of Seven Bells :: Alpinisms
Feature: Black Moth Super Rainbow :: Hairy Sugar Music
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