The Raveonettes, Autolux, and the Peels at the Double Door (5-11-2005)

The Raveonettes

Did you ever find yourself listening to a Buddy Holly song and thinking "Damn, I wonder what that would sound like if it were covered by the Jesus and Mary Chain?" No? Me neither. But it appears at some point that Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo did, and just like that, the Raveonettes were born. Anyway, I already posted about these guys a while back, and on repeated listens, my opinion hasn't changed all that much. But they are somewhat of a guilty pleasure. They do tend to get stuck in your head. Listen to "That Great Love Sound" a few times and tell me I'm wrong.

The live show, I'll admit, was fantastic. To start with, I was in a pretty good spot, about 15-20 feet from the stage, right in the middle. The Double Door can sound kind of crappy if you're on the edges, but the sound is pretty good if you're in a good spot. This is a band who's stuff lends itself well to live performance. Loud, heavy on the guitar, pretty up-tempo. The following is an incomplete and out of order setlist:

• Attack of the Ghost Riders
• Beat City
• That Great Love Sound
• Noisy Summer
• Let's Rave On
• Heartbreak Stroll
• Little Animal
• Untamed Girls (I think)
• Chaingang of Love (I think - I could just be remembering how much the dudes standing next to me wanted to hear it)
• Love in a Trashcan
• My Boyfriend's Back (Yes, that one)
• Red Tan
• Somewhere in Texas
• Twilight
• Ode to L.A. (complete witht the Ronnie Spector part piped in)
• You Say You Lie

I'm not real familiar with the new album, Pretty in Black, so I might have missed a few there. Twilight and You Say You Lie were probably the highlights (I think they closed the first set with Twilight, and if I'm right, that was pretty awesome, and they probably should have finished on it). They did play a fair amount from the exclusively b-flat major Chain Gang of Love, and the exclusively b-flat minor Whip It On. The lovely Sharin Foo was hotter in person.

Yowza!!

You could tell that this is a band that really seems to enjoy performing, and feeding off the packed crowd, they generated enough energy to power a small city. Considering that this is a performance that I seriously considering skipping, I came away pretty impressed. Final verdict: I wouldn't be surprised if I made the effort to see them again.

Autolux

Let's face it, these are the guys I came to see. I love their album Future Perfect, and I was really looking forward to their live set. I also was looking forward to seeing Carla Azar in person (who may or may not be dating Giovanni Ribisi - they apparently have a lot of young actor fans).

She's the girl

For the most part they didn't disappoint. They were loud, drenched in feedback, and generally interesting to watch on stage. While I normally hate to complain about the setlist, well first, here it is, to the extent I can remember:

• Turnstile Blues
• Subzero Fun
• Blanket
• Robots in the Garden
• Asleep at the Trigger
• A couple more that I can't remember

The problem is that they left out Angry Candy, Sugarless, and Here Comes Everybody. Hey, it's their setlist, and they'll play what they want, but personally, those three tracks plus Subzero Fun were what I was really looking forward to hearing. Oh well. They were still worth the price of admission, and I'm sure I'll make every effort to catch them next time they're in town.

The Peels

Never heard of this band before last night, but they were pretty good, even though I missed the first song or two. I'm not even gonna make an attempt at a setlist, although I know the last song was called Lay. Robyn Miller is the name of the lead vocalist as this was apparently a three babe gig with Azar and Foo. She was pretty hot herself, and man, she can belt out a tune. I can't find any pictures of her, so you're just gonna have to take my word for it. Kind of a deep voice that reminded me of Kristin Hersh in sound if not so much in style. Pretty much a straight forward rock band that really got into it on stage. I'm planning on doing a little research into them. I don't know if I'll like them in a week, but they certainly entertained for the half hour or so that they were on stage.