The Raveonettes
Live @ The Black Cat, Washington, D.C., 05/28/05
With all the attention paid to Danish group The Raveonettes' gradual shift from minimalism and keeping everything in the same key ("Whip it on") all the way through to their current open approach that embraces early 60s rock, the girl group sound and fuzzed-out garage, I was curious to see how they'd put everything together in a live setting. Their expansion to a quintet onstage was a good idea--when she wasn't playing the tambourine, singer Sharin Foo added a third guitar to an already thunderous sound. Sune Rose Wagner, the manic Manoj Ramdas and company played most of the new album "Pretty in black", giving the songs a little fuzzy kick to make them sound a bit more like the earlier material. This was especially the case on "Red tan" and "Somewhere in Texas". That made things pretty much seamless, as the new songs fit right in alongside "Attack of the ghost riders" and "That great love sound". The downside to that consistency in sound was that the band avoided a few of the largely acoustic songs from the new record, which was a shame. "Uncertain times" is one of the best things they've written, so I was hoping they'd give it a spin. Hearing Ronnie Spector's sampled voice on "Ode to L.A." was a little disconcerting (Sharin could've covered that part, too), but the surf-twang of "Love in a trashcan" and primal stomp of "Beat city" made me forget the samples pretty quickly. The harmonies of Wagner and Foo hold up well live in the midst of all those layers of guitar, so I must say I came away impressed. My friends Paige and Susan agreed, all the more impressive because our eardrums took quite a beating.
- Matthew W. Smith