Caught Live: Sleigh Bells @ Whelans, Dublin
If a textbook were to be written instructing buzz bands on how to stand out from the Hype Machine crowd, Sleigh Bells would surely deserve a chapter to themselves. After Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller became one of the most talked-about bands at CMJ ‘09, they could quite easily have found themselves being dismissed as just the latest hipster fad. After all, the noise duo (a) were from Brooklyn, and (b) looked unquestionably cool. Luckily for them, their songs - ferociously loud and infectious - more than backed up the pre-2010 tipping, while the debut album - "instantly invigorating and enormously enjoyable" - led to some deserved end-of-year list-troubling. Throughout it all, the pair’s live show has always been touted as their finest attribute, and in what amounted to little more than the thirty-two minutes their debut spans last Friday night, Dublin finally got a chance to see just why.
The pair really didn’t need to play for any longer; if anything, in fact, the set's brevity simply added another cool point to what was an incredibly cool performance: half an hour of Miller lurching about the stage and Krauss utterly owning every square inch of the room. There was little or no messing about, as bruising single ‘Infinity Guitars’ kicked things off, before ‘A/B Machines’ and ‘Tell ‘Em’ - two more cuts that tested precisely how sound Whelans' foundations were - were each given an early run-out. Sleigh Bells clearly shop at the same ‘Massive Amps R Us’ store as No Age, but still had time to give the venue's shattered soundsystem a break with the deliciously melodic ‘Rill Rill'. Set-closer ‘Crown On The Ground’ then proceeded to blow the shit out of those speakers once more, bringing to an end one of the finest live displays this writer has witnessed in quite some time.
Sleigh Bells have the lot: the songs, the album, the show and - in Krauss - a candidate for the best frontwoman to emerge since Karen O. Slightly less intense than the Yeah Yeah Yeahs leading lady, Krauss is nonetheless every bit as magnetic tonight, particularly on the heavy breathing of ‘Rachel’ and heavy screaming of ‘Treats’. She’s Lykke Li with killer tats, a combination A&R men everywhere can only dream of being able to bottle. Or at least teach. Class of 2011: take note.
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Comments
"The pair really didn’t need
"The pair really didn’t need to play for any longer; if anything, in fact, the set's brevity simply added another cool point to what was an incredibly cool performance"
One way to look at it. Another would be they didn't play long enough. The couple of album tracks they left out would have helped me forget the terrible support act.
Kid Karate?
As in that band off Fade Street?? I decided to steer well clear of 'em and stayed put in the front bar til Sleigh Bells started wrecking the gaff. I'm not always one for brief sets either but just thought the whole 32 minutes and 17 seconds were shit cool.