As it turned out, I missed Sunday night's Raveonettes show at Maxwell's in Hoboken because... well, basically because I'm a fucking idiot. Let's just leave it at that, k? However, my idiot-ness just wound up making the Bowery show that much more important of a go, because the Raveonettes have announced over and over again on MySpace that this will be their only US tour in 2008. Catch 'em while you can, folks.
My first exposure to the Raveonettes came when by chance I caught their performance of "That Great Love Sound" on Letterman back in '03. (Watching that clip I realize just how much my memory tends to skew and exaggerate stuff; I distinctly remember there being dramatic spotlighting and grand, swooping camera angles, neither of which ever actually occurred. Fuck me!). At the time, I was listening to mostly classic rock/metal-derived stuff and my descent into indie geekdom hadn't yet begun, and although I thought "That Great Love Sound" was indeed great -- kind of a '50s bubblegum/girl group vibe but with amps turned up to eleven, but I was really more struck by how hot Sharin Foo was, thinking "damn, I have to start listening to more bands with hot chicks in them."
About 5 months later, I was in Ithaca visiting friends who were still in school, making a showing for "Varsity A," a yearly 21 bar/21 beer barcrawl/disaster extending through the town's downtown bars, into outlying hicktastic shitholes, and eventually back up through the Collegetown bars just off of Cornell's campus. The night prior to the planned pubcrawl, I met up with a bunch of friends at Collegetown Bagels for a carafe of sangria before splitting off to do blow with a friend back at the "bachelor pad" of another couple of female friends that lived nearby. (My stash consisted of some crap that I had bought in suburban Chicago, which my well-nasally-traveled friend promptly identified as being "glass," AKA some sort of high-powered meth that I'd never heard of. After brief deliberation, my reaction was "meh, whatever... the shit ain't gonna snort itself." Honestly she could have told me it was crystallized rat poison and face it, it still would have found its way up my nostrils somehow). Anyway, we wound up crushing up whatever the fuck it was on a CD case of The Raveonettes' Chain Gang of Love, and she responded very favorably when I asked her what she thought of the CD. (Again, not that impromptu amphetamine-fueled music reviews are always necessarily that accurate; everything is always either "fucking awesome" or "it fucking sucks." Nonetheless, most of my best decisions have come as a result of massive drug intake, so...)
Anywho. When I returned back to the Chicago area after the weekend, I found my way to Rainbow Records on Northwest Highway, coming across and buying a used copy of The Raveonettes debut EP, Whip It On. It wasn't as poppy as what I'd remembered from their Letterman appearance and was decidedly more dark and gritty, so after bong hits I went on Amazon and bought Chain Gang of Love as well as Guided by Voices' career-spanning compilation Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, MBV's Loveless and J Mascis' Martin and Me all in one shot, in what was (in hindsight) probably the single most "influential" CD purchase I've ever made. To this day, Chain Gang of Love resides somewhere in the top half of my all-time Top 6 albums ever, amongst a rotating cast including NMH's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, OK Computer, GbV's Bee Thousand, The Who's Live at Leeds and, of course, Appetite for Destruction.
My first time seeing them live was in April '05 at Mercury Lounge about a year after I'd moved back to NY, and I caught them at Warsaw the following October the night after they'd had all their gear stolen. For that show, they played on borrowed acoustics and borrowed some of Radio 4's gear still managing to exude great spirit in spite of the shitty circumstances. In '07 I was lucky enough to catch them four times, with the March Sune/Sharin Duo show at Southpaw being really memorable. And I've had their newest outing, Lust Lust Lust, on heavy rotation in my car/iPod/computer since it came out last month and it's pretty safe to say that it's my favorite record so far of '08. Yes, I realize that this list states otherwise, but I'll have an update of said list posted within the next few days which'll set that shit straight. (Note: I realize that this extended self-indulgent trip down memory lane may have been tiresome for you, the reader, but I hope I've at least established that I'm not a casual Raveonettes fan -- I consider them one of the very best bands in the world.)
So, yeah. I got to NYC a little after 8 and called a friend who would be seeing the show with me. We met up shortly thereafter and took a quick walk around Chrystie/Bowery/Rivington so I could gossip a bit about mutual acquaintances and get some weed in my system before the show, entering Bowery Ballroom minutes after opener Black Acid took the stage. Now, normally I'm pretty receptive to opening bands, but these guys were just so cliched and unoriginal that I feared they'd harsh my buzz. Not as bad as Louis XIV, but not as hilarious, either. So, a few seconds into their third consecutive rote Stones-by-way-of-Alphabet City knockoff, we departed for about a half hour, coming back just in time to catch their closing number, which must have had like 3 separate false endings before mercifully dying out. (While we were downstairs I briefly spotted Oliver from A Place to Bury Strangers and shook his hand, mentioning that I was a fan and that I'd enjoyed their most recent show. Seemed like a good dude.) As the house lights rose, we took the opportunity to scoot up front practically right against the left (Sune side) of the stage. Let the show begin.
Sune, Sharin, and their hot drummer chick, Leah, took the stage a little before quarter to 11, rolling right into Lust Lust Lust's "Hallucinations," a standout on an album full of 'em. First single from Lust, "Dead Sound," was next, followed by "That Great Love Sound" and "Let's Rave On," both from Chain Gang, all played at a breakneck pace. The trio then brought it down a few notches with some slower material, including "Here Comes Mary" and "Love in a Trashcan" from the underappreciated Pretty in Black LP before taking three Whip it On gems ("Attack of the Ghost Riders," "My Tornado" and "Bowels of the Beast") out for a spin, pausing only long enough for drummer chick to cue up the backing tracks.
[Which leads to my only real complaint with The Raveonettes' live experience: these backing tracks. Sune and Sharin choose to adorn many of the songs with pre-taped bass, percussion, distortion and assorted song-specific sound effects: the bing-bong noises throughout "Love in a Trashcan;" the steady beep-beep-beep beep-beep-beep waltz of "Love Can Destroy Everything," the persistent dinging that begins each measure of "Aly Walk With Me." Which to me is unnecessary. As I mentioned earlier, my favorite Raveonettes tour was last March when they toured as a duo, Sharin and Sune switching off song-by-song with each spending time at the guitar, bass and drum. Seriously, guys, drop the piped-in stuff. Rant over.]
Tuneful raveup "You Want the Candy" followed, in a gracious tribute/tip-of-the-cap to former Raves' producer (and frequent '60s girl group contributor) Richard Gottehrer, also the composer of classic songs like "I Want Candy" and "My Boyfriend's Back." After running through a few more new songs, including "Blush," "Black Satin" and "Lust," they ended the proper set with Lynchian Lust album opener "Aly, Walk With Me" (no "Red Tan" tonight, unfortunately) before closing out the evening with an encore of "Love Can Destroy Everything" into "Twilight." And not a moment too soon, as I had completely thrown out my back at this point. Whew, what a great fucking show.
To be sure, the Raveonettes are a band that proudly wear their influences on their sleeves. After all, the band's very name is half-Buddy Holly reference, half-nod to the Ronettes. Yes, their sound draws heavily on Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy and surf guitar tones and drumbeats and film noir imagery. But those who dismiss them as mimics are missing the point entirely: if you can't enjoy The Raveonettes, I'd recommend an armada of Q-tips be dispensed to your ear area forthwith!
As we walked out Bowery's street-level exit onto Delancey, it was impossible not to overhear the post-show excitement in everyone's voices, easily audible in English and Danish -- it's always fun to see a great show and then hear people giddily discussing about what a great show it was afterwards. Plus I saw a girl who was shaped like Grimace before I hobbled into a cab towards Penn Station, so that was cool.
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