by Seamus Simpson (text) & Laurie Scavo (photos)
I became vaguely familiar with the bedroom recording project known as Le Loup through their first album The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly, a record full of lush melodies and haunting lyrics. Seeing they were swinging by the Echo last Tuesday I figured I would check out a delightful show by this group of lads from Washington, D.C.
The night began with opener Random Patterns who hail from Highland Park. They were an interesting band but seemed young in their approach. Conveying some interesting musical ideas that included tenor saxophone, laptop samples, and heavily disjointed songwriting, the local quintet unfortunately just seemed like an aural mess. The guitar melodies were drowned out by the samples, the drummer seemed to go out of his way to fill every part of each song with an unnecessary fill, and the saxophone was under utilized. While they were reminiscent of early Mercury Rev, it still came across as just a jumble of noise. But they have promise and with some work and tightening up of their sound I'd be interested to see what becomes of them.
Taking a break between sets to enjoy a conversation about baseball and band names with Buzz Bands' Kevin Bronson, I headed back in to catch the headliner. While Le Loup lacked a bit of organic cohesion--I was told through a mutual friend that the band had been hastily put together just to get out on the road--they played a wonderful set. Opening with "Beach Town" of their new album Family I could tell the band was headed in a different direction than their earlier work. While the first album was full of electronic lo-fi with a majestic beauty, the new songs were more heavy stoner rock. This left the set a little out of sync but there were some amazing moments. Old songs like "Outside Of This Car, The End Of The World!" and "We Are Gods! We Are Wolves" were fantastic with the entire band converging on a miniature percussion set in the middle of the stage and battering the hell out of it. While I prefer the more bedroom produced stuff to the stoner rock band thing they are doing now it was still a great show and I recommend seeing them when they come back through this fair city of ours.
Le Loup is currently finishing up a tour across the states and Random Patterns opens up for The Happy Hollows as part of their Spaceland residency on Nov. 16.
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