Show Review: Springtime Carnivore/The Dodos @ The Parish (02.18)

What’s better than a great show in the middle of the workweek to get you through to the weekend? Nothing. Wednesday night’s lineup had me geared up for a high-energy evening of sunny dream pop and rambunctious percussive pop music. Both bands did not fail to bring a large supply of that energy and each doled it out in very different directions. Read about the refreshing evening after the jump and see some HQ super wonderful iPhone shots from yours truly.

First up was Springtime Carnivore, headed up by front lady Greta Morgan. Let me just say, if you haven’t had a listen to this band’s debut LP that was just released, you need to get on that, or you’ll soon be left behind. They tossed out tracks from this fresh LP to the mild crowd, and the bouncy dream pop came alive in the live setting. Greta and company grooved along to their music, seeming at ease on the stage despite an initially disinterested and chatty crowd. They worked their way up through their short catalogue, smartly placing their hookiest songs for the end of the set. Highlights included catchy “Name on a Matchbook,” and borderline disco “Last One To Know.”

While our time with Springtime Carnivore was brief, Morgan’s powerhouse vocals and the band’s steady energy won over the crowd’s heart with ease over time. Each track down their set list was met with more applause and dancing; this group transfixed a seemingly uninterested crowd and made fans of them all. Like I mentioned before, take a listen to this band and fall in love, then go see them live and fall in love twice over.

Then, after a short intermission the headliners took the stage, but the theme of the night for The Dodos was technical difficulties. Being currently just a two-man act, they use looping methods and other pre-recorded means to flesh out their sound. This turned out to be great, when it worked, seamlessly intermixing with the furious drums and hyper-fast guitar skills of Logan Kroeber and Meric Long. But when it wasn’t working, the band didn’t really let this get their way; they didn’t throw tantrums or stop mid song, but played through the messiness. This is an amiable trait in a band, and while I wish the technical difficulties hadn’t been part of the evening, these two gentlemen trucked on through their set, shrugging off problems

  The Dodos have quite a catalogue of songs to draw from these days, but they focused on the new tracks from Individ, which stood out from their other tracks as slightly more refined, but nevertheless packed with energy. “Competition” and “Goodbyes and Endings” stood out to me the most, giving the duo a chance to lose control at precise moments while still holding the reigns. When you have two people giving their complete all on stage, doling out rambunctious carnal songs, sometimes things start to feel a little awry. This phenomenon

The band ended their two song encore by bringing up Greta Morgan back to the stage to join them on vocals, which fleshed out their sound in a whole new direction. This ended the night on a high note, as dancing Meric and Greta caught each others eye and both burst into the kind of smile of two people doing what they love and having a blast in the process.