Trentemoller leads the rapture @ Mezzanine...photo by RLC
Anders Trentemoller is a Copenhagen-based electronic music producer/composer/multi-instrumentalists/remix specialist and former-DJ. With so many slashes used by people to describe what he does, the one glaring omission is live stage performer. This past Saturday night Trentemoller (the name he is commonly known by) brought the LIVE performer in full force to San Francisco’s Mezzanine for a sold out, one of a kind musical experience that is deserving of as many descriptors as the artist himself. By no means was this one man behind the glow of machines but rather a full seven-piece outfit, featuring some of the most talented Danish musicians I would imagine in any genre. Trentemoller’s music is not easily described but his live show is. In a word, Brilliant! Now for a bunch more words in an effort to capture the scene, music, and general atmosphere he created at Mezzanine.
Dark and mysterious with a touch of whimsy...photo by RLC
Having not been to the states in close to two and a half years the audience – easily as eclectic and diverse as the artist they were there to see – were clearly eager with anticipation. Trentemoller has been touring behind last year’s release of his second album Into The Great Wide Yonder. His European shows and festival appearances have been epic stagings, so I was curious as to how he would bring that to a relatively small club environment. The stage had a scrim erected across the front of it made of an industrial fabric separated into strips of reflective orange, with smaller “faux walls of fabric” set back acting to further break up the stage. This gave an interesting depth of field that worked to obscure the band partially, while filtering the various lighting arrangements into the house. Set opener, “Mash and the Fury” set the tone for a night of dark and mysterious music that builds into a release of house-inspired glory. Amidst the ominous decay of electronic sounds and atmospheric touches, were guitars that whipcracked making me think of Ennio Morricone. Only this time, The Good Bad and Ugly was set in Iceland, with Clint Eastwood riding a horse alone across a barren arctic landscape. In Trentemoller’s world, songs and sounds act as cinema as much as musical pieces, each with their own story arcs. I witnessed many dancing out these storylines. Some as post-apocalyptic nymphs or ballerinas twirling their way through digitally enhanced tundra, others as Ninjas dance-fighting their way through a crowded dance floor against an invisible foe. A look around the room reminded me of a scene lifted from Thunderdome, only with a more European fashion sensibility and much better access to bathing. The upper rim of the industrial warehouse-style club packed tight with people thrusting arms in time with the beat at the stage.
Darkness falls...photo by RLC
Midway through the set the scrim in front of the stage was lower to expose the band filtered through a wash of strobes and perfectly choreographed lighting. The type of lighting I would normally associated with a huge RAWK show by the likes of a Radiohead or Coldplay. The artist’s attention to detail came through not only in his music but also in its live representation. Trentemoller’s music often transforms from cold detachment into euphoric splashes, then, quietly morphing into what sounds like an ominous journey through a dark Nordic forest. He led the band and audience with the exuberance of a classical conductor. The set was softened by some beautiful vocal performances from Josephine Phillips and Ina Lindgreen on the songs “Even Though Your With Another Girl” and “Sycamore Feeling”. Both women are also in Danish band Darkness Falls (which Trentemoller produced), their vocals adding an ethereal quality that swept across like a warm breeze that somehow emerges out of a snowdrift. Set closer “Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!” was a wild ride that conjured its title and had the crowd erupting into a frenzy of dance and self-expression you rarely witness in American audiences. This song fuses surf guitars with Goth and Industrial elements, and Trentemoller seemed to relish the effect it was having on the crowd. He returned for an encore shortly after it was apparent no one in the audience had any intention of going anywhere. The band throughout the show was as enthusiastic as their leader, ending the set with instruments held aloft triumphantly like conquering Vikings, fresh from the slaying Grendal. This is the kind of confidence a band used to playing HUGE festivals back in Europe bring to the table that is often missed in American Indie Rock.
No caption necessary...photo by RLC
At the end of the near two-hour performance I was left feeling like I had been through something dramatic but not overwrought, communal and special. After this performance he and his band were headed to Coachella for their festival debut there. I’m sure for the uninitiated that happen along his set, many will be converted into Arctic fairies, traipsing through a cinematic wonderland of their own creation, then entering a wormhole that deposits them back into the Southern California desert. For more on Trentemoller listen to this week’s “What Duvet Said…About Music” for a conversation I had with him prior to the show. He has also been tapped to curate a Late Night Tales compilation and as mentioned above is producing Darkness Falls first full-length release out early this summer (Trenetemoller produced EP available on iTunes). Here his remix of his own song "Shades of Marble" below, along with a video for "Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!" from the Rokslide Festival.
CSS on stage at Mezzanine, a view to a kill...photo by RLC
The thing about being a music writer is that there is an overwhelming pressure to be everywhere at once. This anxiety to be at all the “right shows” and cover every band that gets mentioned to you, however casually, seems to heighten when festival season kicks off in full swing. This past weekend the Coachella Music & Arts Festival was being held in the desert outside LA and it was the first time in the last three years that I did not attend. I have my reasons for this - most far too snarky and petty to mention in a blog that prides itself on its sanctimony - still, I still found myself suffering from a bloggers inferiority complex. I mean, “Tweet” after FUCKING “Tweet” of attendees and colleagues bestowing such keen observations as; “Arcade Fire is KILLIN IT!” or “Mojave Tent is GOING OFF! RT NOW!”, paired with camera phone PROOF! This left me feeling like there might be a crucial, "Critical" void in coverage not being met. The reality is that I have known for some time that one need not attend Coachella in order to sample some of the best live shows during this weekend. By simply staying put and going to some of the finest venues anywhere in the country, to see the same acts making their way to desert, I might be able to give you a bit more information to chew than, “My gnarly, unwashed, long-natch curly camping hair is more epic than Arcade Fire's performance last night.”
The Mezzanine Tent was GOING OFF in SF!!!...photo by RLC
So in the interest of music journalism here is a review of CSS kicking off their tour at San Francisco’s Mezzanine on Friday night, two days prior to playing an abbreviated set in an over-crowded tent in front of a bunch of hipsters watching themselves watching a band that they secretly hope Lindsay Lohan is watching so they can watch her watch the band that they are not watching because they are tapping on their iPhone a “Tweet” about how Lindsay Lohan is watching the same band that they are not-watching and isn’t this, “TENT AND BAND GOING OFF!” This must be its own ring in Dante’s infernal inferno.
I first want to note how local promoters Popscene consistently and continually bring the Bay Area some of the best bills assembled anywhere in the country, pairing local talent with some of the most unique and compelling national/international artists. Their weekly events are always worth attending and DJ’s Omar along with LIVE 105’s Aaron Axelsen (the man behind Popscene) throw a great party! This was most definitely the case on Friday as Sao Paulo, Brazil’s CSS were teamed with Oakland, CA’s HOTTUB for a night of music that was, I guarantee, on par with anything happening in the desert at that same time.
Too hot in the HOTTUB...photo by RLC
HOTTUB are a trio of female MCs that hit the stage with so much energy that I was literally left standing slack jawed. They are like female Beastie Boys, only with much better flow and rhyming skills, and they are committed to fighting for their right to party and demand that you should be to. The audience was hooked from the first song and by the end of the set had joined the ladies onstage. Do not miss HOTTUB! Their stage show has to “be seen to be believed”. They fuse an old school hip-hop sensibility with whatever the FUCK suits them. They were the bubbles and this hot tub was full up, turning Mezzanine into a sauna in the process.
Lovefoxxx from CSS takes out the trash...photo by RLC
The near sell-out crowd was in great spirits after Hot Tub’s set and primed for the act they were all there to see, CSS. Now, admittedly, I was late to the band from Brazil’s party. The electro-pop unit had built quite a "buzz" being signed to Sub Pop for the release of their debut Cansei de Ser Sexyand had a song featured in an Apple commercial – the latter usually precludes me from buying in. But, courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library, I rediscovered CSS through their 2008 release Donkey and was now fully converted to their contact sport approach to dance-pop. From the moment they took the stage singer Lovefoxxx let everyone in attendance know how this show was going to go down. We were going to dance, get sweaty, love our neighbor, and she was going to lead a relentless attack of music that vacillates between electronic, reggae, kuduro, pop, and “new rave”. The mostly female contingent delivers this hybrid dance music using a straightforward rock band setup of guitars, bass and drums (in addition to synths ). Their energy and stage presence rival that of the best punk bands, with Lovefoxxx spending plenty of time crowd surfing or singing from the middle of the audience. The 90-minute set was a nonstop, energy-fueled, joyride in a car without breaks! I imagine their set at Coachella a day later was hotter than anything the desert sun could produce. This band is in it to win it live and took no prisoners Friday. Singer Lovefoxxx proudly wore a shirt inscribed with the word “Trash” across her chest, but there was nothing trashy about the execution of their music. This is a very tight and well-tuned band that is sure to continue blowing minds as they join Sleigh Bells for the rest of their stateside tour.
These girls are not from Ipanema...photo by RLC
Sadly, there were no Lindsay Lohan sightings, thus, rendering this evening of wonderful music invalid. The funny thing was that I don’t think anyone cared when removed from whatever context Coachella now inhabits for those that attend. Relevance is a funny thing because it’s always shifting and very hard to pin down. Especially, when compressed into 140 characters. What I do know is that this show Popscene put on was as relevant to those lucky enough to be there as anything else happening 500 miles south. CSS & HOT TUB WERE KILLIN IT @Mezzanine @Coachella @Pitchfork @LindseyLohan…
