This last Saturday night in Los Angeles, was one full of excitement to catch a band I'd waited for over a decade to see. England's Tindersticks were playing in Los Angeles, and I was damned if I was going to miss them this time. This tour to the states brought the band in support of their recently released; five CD/LP compilation "The Claire Denis Film Scores 1996-2009."The night started upon entering an unfamiliar LA venue, one on the campus of Cal State LA: The Luckman Arts Center - a minimalist yet beautiful brick theater. As the lights went down, the Tindersticks entered the darkened stage. Coming off sounding subtle yet amazing, the band's soundscapes were perfectly set for film accompaniment. The songs/scores felt cinematically fabricated, belonging somewhere in-between an eerie spaghetti-western and walking into a 1920's cocktail lounge in Madrid (on a bunch of downers), and waiting for the next fight to break out: The calm before the storm...
Focusing on songs/soundtracks from their work supporting the films of Claire Denis, the band preformed superbly in front of a giant film screen, showing a montage of well composed and intriguing films; though the subject matter of the films i was more mixed on. The films seemed largely comprised of vignettes of the human condition: sex & beauty, senseless violence & death. Personally i was in favor of the former of the two groups, but understood the intent - even if watching the latter seemed to detracted a bit from the total evening.
The presentation of songs ebbed and flowed between soundtrack focused, and performance focused; between the film being in the foreground (and the band in silhouette), and the band being the foreground with the film set back as intriguing imagery behind the band. All the while: The eight members of the band radiated a understated yet sophisticatedly cool vibe...
---
Clovis IV: Photos & Review
www.clovis-iv.com
No comments:
Post a Comment