On a night so hot no one dared wear a wool cap, California act , riding a freight train of buzz, played to a 40-percent full , proving that either the Denver concertgoers are immune to hype, however deserved, or were all down the street at the Ogden to see the Dead Weather, featuring one of contemporary music’s greatest guitarists … playing DRUMS?!
Also on the bill were Memphis’ , whose sum output consists of a two-song single and a just-released song, “Summer,” from their debut album out next month. Playing the Bluebird for the second time this year (they played with Girls last February), Magic Kids have lately earned praise from the Los Angeles Times and The Guardian — and it’s justified.
Magic Kids play with earnest, yet disturbing, grins one normally associates with escaped mental patients, Billy Zoom (from the band X) or the cast of Up With People. You couldn’t help but smile back though, as damn near every song clicked better than the last, the band’s two keyboard sound used to better effect than most bands. Sunny, pre-LSD Beach Boys-like tunes played enthusiastically and energetically along with angelic harmonies.
However, as the Magic Kids’ set wore on, something else became part of the show: the realization that the sound in the Bluebird was pretty muffled that night. There’s the nice, light, lovely gauzy altered sound that many like, and then there’s the unpleasant effect that comes from feeling that your ears and the sound system are enveloped in gauze and mummified.
The crowd grew with late arrivals, there only to hear Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti. The set began with a roughly five-minute-long freak out piece that owed more to Tangerine Dream, with a commanding, throbbing bass than, say, Pink Floyd. It seemed an inauspicious, pretentious start that only half connected with the audience, particularly ones who’ve only heard the most recent APHG album, the justly hyped “Before Today.”
Widespread buzz, like APHG has received, is often the mother to massive disappointment. Saturday night at the Bluebird, it may have spawned the heckler who seemed displeased with Ariel Rosenberg’s carefully crafted rock-superstar stage persona. Rosenberg successfully sparred with the self proclaimed critic and the show continued.
The energy in the room finally took off during the band’s gorgeous cover of the Ramrods’ “Bright Lit Blue Skies,” during which small pockets of the crowd could be seen dancing. Played live, all five voices meshed powerfully on the chorus and was the first of several instances during the hour-long set where APHG delivered on all that promise.
Yet, again during APHG’s set, the Bluebird’s usually decent sound was off — too echoey, blurred (the Blueblurred? sorry…), any sonic nuance or texture lost. Maybe it was the sound, or the freakin’ heat OR the freakin’ hype because APHG seemed a bit off at times. Not a bad show by any stretch, but one that was somewhat disappointing and mostly for preventable reasons.
Too bad somebody didn’t heckle the sound guy.
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Mike Long is a Longmont-based writer and comedian and a regular contributor to Reverb.
