Show Review: Delorean, Bachelorette at the Echoplex (4/17/10)

By Seamus Simpson

Crazy, sweaty, dance party.

Those are the words I would use to describe my experience seeing Delorean at the Echoplex, but we are getting ahead of ourselves aren’t we. I fell in love with Delorean many moons ago when I was going through my heavy “I will listen to anything you music blog” phase. They are one of the few bands that have outlasted that phase and become something I would continue to listen too. The problem is they are from Spain and don’t get out of the country much. Put these things together and there was no way I was missing their show.

So that is how I found myself at the Echoplex on a Saturday night whilst the rest of my friends, pals, people I don’t even know, and their pets were in Indio getting scorched.

(Quick sidebar – if you didn’t catch the superb live reviews of the three-day shindig on BuzzBands.la then please head over there and check it out after you read this.) When I sauntered in into the club I was immediately impressed by the sheer volume of people there. I mean it was by no means sold out, but to have still  200 some odd people to a show on the weekend of Coachella is no easy feat. I did my usual bee-line to the bar for a drink when I was somehow stopped by the spectacle on stage. A lovely young lady was standing behind a mass of computers and other noise making devices along with a guitar off to the side making this ethereal sounding music that for lack of a better word was like a musical collage that was being made in real time. I asked my closest neighbor who was this elf playing such dreamy music and found I was watching Bachelorette.

  Bachelorette was an anomaly to me. Here was a band that in any other circumstance I would have probably loathed, and yet I got sucked in. She does this amazing thing with samplers where she slowly sings one vocal line then over time she adds more and more till there is what seems like an entire chorus on stage. It stood somewhere on the precipice of Goldfrapp meets Bjork – meets lo-fi wonderment. At the end of the day she would do well to at the very least get a live drummer, but for a girl just standing there behind her machines I still found myself loving every minute. 

After a smoke and shot I was ready to dance, and I would soon get my chance. Delorean took the stage with a setup consisting of a drummer with an acoustic set and trigger, a guitar player who also played with no less then three keyboards which seemed to run more of the rhythm gambit of the music, another keyboard player who acted more as a sampler and energy aspect of the music, and a bass player singer.  I was taken from the first beat on. To be honest I don’t think I knew one song, and you know what – it didn’t matter. Their brand of music is so infectious that whether you know a song or not you were going to get swept up in the magic. Any band that can get the jaded hipsters of the Echo Park bumpin’ and grindin’ is doing something right. I wish I could give a more visual aspect to this review, but truth be told I was too busy dancing to really get much of a bead on them. I will say aurally they were a delight to behold.

Dripping with sweat and aching legs I retired to the back to join my fellow revelers and soak in what I had just witnessed. The general consensus was the same. They brought it, whatever it is. I would like to say I stayed around for the eventual headliner JJ, but I was too tired and anything following that was going to pale in comparison. The few fleeting glimpses I caught were that of a woman very overdressed for the Echoplex but perfect for the Bar Sinister crowd. The one interesting "of note" I got from them was they had backing tracks that were being played in time by ghostly figures being projected on the back screen. While that is cool, I saw The Faint do better on the Danse Macabre tour. Take that for what it is worth.