Two bands. Two coasts. One thing in common:
They just might be the next things on your iPod.
Is it crazy that these two indie outfits — the Local Natives and Suckers, both playing the Larimer Lounge tonight — have one of the most-anticipated shows of the summer? Even when most people have never heard of them?
Not really. When you consider the kind of music that gets popular these days, they won’t likely be considered indie for long.
Both love easy pop melodies, sing-along hooks and three-part harmonies, and both have managed to become critical darlings. With shared influences, from the Talking Heads to cult favorite TV on the Radio, they both take pride in spectacularly compelling live shows that play off their tight harmonies, likable personalities and relaxed songwriting.
“We put so much time and effort into these songs and the writing,” said Andy Hamm, the Local Natives’ bass player, a Colorado native who moved to Los Angeles after graduating from Wheat Ridge High School. “When we have a chance to share these songs live, it’s so great, so special — especially when you have people in the crowd and they’re dancing and singing along and the AC is broken so it’s 400 degrees inside. Under any other circumstances, it would be miserable. But for us, it’s perfect.”
If you don’t know these two bands, give them time — after all, there are necessary steps in the maturation process for a pop outfit. A long double-bill tour in sold-out rock clubs is one of them. And yes, tonight’s show is sold out.
Los Angeles-based Local Natives are headlining the tour, and their star is unquestionably on the rise with a widely praised Coachella performance under their belts, an ever-growing fan base falling for their debut “Gorilla Manor” and a date with the Austin City Limits Festival in October. The group’s music could easily sell a Volkswagen, so it’s only a matter of time before its songs are scoring national ad campaigns.
New York-rooted Suckers are angular and jittery where Local Natives are cool and almost Afrobeat. But like their pals and labelmates — both bands release their records on vaunted indie label Frenchkiss — their music has a way of grabbing you and shaking you into a higher consciousness. Suckers’ excellent debut full- length, “Wild Smile,” comes out in early June.
Having seen each of these bands separately in the past six months, I immediately paired them in my mind as two of today’s most promising pop songwriting voices — and as two bands that have a blast with harmonies and spastic percussion. It seemed fated when they announced a tour together, providing fans the kind of experience they would otherwise see only at a festival.
The most obvious characteristic of any Local Natives or Suckers show: The guys are genuinely having fun up there.
“Even though you play the same songs, the loud music rock bands play is a visceral experience, and once you get going, it’s hard to escape it,” said Austin Fisher, a singer and multi-instrumentalist with Suckers. “You can actually feel the vibrations of things going through you. We always try to have fun, otherwise what are we doing out here? We’re not making any money.”
What else do the bands share? It’s hard to quantify, but they both have a way of writing songs you’re compelled to sing along with. When the Suckers embark on a sweeping “whoa” in the first half of “Save Your Love for Me,” it’s easy to pick up their vocal line and whoa-along. When the Local Natives demand, “I want you back,” in “Airplanes,” don’t be surprised when more than two-thirds of the club is singing along.
And that’s a special quality about their music.
“We have lots of vocals and group harmonies and shouts and sing-alongs,” said Fisher of the Local Natives, “so that helps if you’re in the audience.”
We could call it the Arcade Fire Effect, as that Canadian band seemed to popularize audience participation among otherwise expressionless hipsters. Add a little of the Fleet Foxes Syndrome, which has brought ’70s-styled harmonies back to the forefront, and you have a Local Natives/Suckers concert. The New York Times reviewed the bands’ sold-out Bowery Ballroom date favorably two weeks ago under the headline, “Two Indie Bands, With Plenty of Three-Part Harmonies.”
For Suckers’ Fisher and the band’s other lead singer, Quinn Walker — did we mention both bands have two lead singers? — the progression of sound came naturally.
“We’ve talked about it before, and Quinn and I are both obsessed with oldies radio,” Fisher admitted. “When we started writing songs and all these harmonies came out, it seemed natural and bigger- sounding, more inclusive. And we really liked it, though it was never something we discussed.”
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com; @RVRB on Twitter
LOCAL NATIVES, SUCKERS
Indie rock. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St. 9 p.m. Friday, May, 21st. sold out. ,
