Blow It Out Your Ass (Veruca Salt/Lovemakers, Canal Room)

Just when I think I'm out...  Actually, Louise is doing Spider-Man, not Pacino.  Be back to wrap up Ms. Post later.

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The New Wave comes up against the World’s Oldest Profession with Oakland’s Lovemakers, a band that leaves everything it’s got on the floor.  Even its clothes.

They play straightforward, and competent, dancey-dance stuff – their songs have subtle titles like “Shake That Ass” and “Dance” (listen at their myspace page) – that one suspects Ultragrrrl might soil herself over.  It’s (duh) synth-heavy stuff – one band member asked the soundman, “Can I get a little more computer in the monitor?” – and I had to struggle afterwards to remember if they even had a drummer (they do).  Yes, the beats are there; but so are a lot of distractions.

Here, this from their bio:

Stanford educated ex- marine biologist/circus violinist Lisa Light (vox, bass, violin) and Vermont-raised pop prodigy [Ed. - !] Scott Blonde (vox, guitar) enrapture audiences with their manic chemistry, infectious dancing, and spontaneous make-out sessions. Offstage however, Scott and Lisa consistently refuse to discuss the exact nature of their relationship with the media or with each other.

That’s right:  The frontman and frontwoman swap spit right in front of you.  And it did feel spontaneous when they did so, last night, and folks went wild.  It’s great that a show would have that sort of moment, even if it produces a sort of skeevy “Get a room” reaction in your gut (especially since, by that time, “Blonde” had gone shirtless and “Light” had stripped down to a bikini top).

Ultimately, though, you feel played.  There’s a desperation going on here that makes you realize The Lovemakers are to New Wave what Morningwood is to classic rock.  That bio, the one that mentions “spontaneous make-out sessions” oxymoronically brags of an “intensely honed” show; it brags about the singers’ nebulous relationship... while a Rolling Stone article on the band’s own press page straightforwardly reveals they’re an “ex-couple” that’s “documenting their messy romantic blow-out.”

“I haven’t gotten laid in three weeks,” sighed Blonde;  “I can vouch for that,” added Light.

Is it always three weeks, though?  How much is script?

The point, I suppose, is that the show The Lovemakers have built starts to feel as pre-programmed as their music; the one thing – beyond energetic, competent dance music – the band proposes with their performance is an availability, an intimacy, that’s not really there.  For the audience, it’s less like a relationship than a one-night stand.

So:  Wear a condom.  Or two.

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Musically they try to mix things up by having Light switch off from bass to violin, and having the pair trade vocal duties.  One welcome constant is hilariously incongruent  Keyboardist  Jason Proctor, who looks about ten years older than his bandmates; throughout the performance he stretches his neck, tortoise-like, weaving metronomically back and forth.

The Lovemakers are back in NYC on December 6th, headlining a show at the Mercury Lounge.  Tix are here.  Other dates are here.

More pics at my Flickr account.

tags: veruca salt  lovemakers  

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