Baltimore babes Beach House – Mr. Alex Scally and Ms. Victoria Legrand – charmed Sydney audiences last week with shows at Beck’s Bar and the City Recital Hall with their beautiful sounds. I caught up with Alex a while ago to talk about what was inspiring the band during the making of their latest album, Teen Dream. You can catch them next weekend at the Laneway festival.

Hello Alex, how and where are you? Are you touring right now?

I’m good, how are you? I’m in Baltimore. No, we’ve just finished kind of touring forever, it’s a kind of rest for a minute.

And how has touring been for Teen Dream?

It’s been constant – at times exciting, at times extremely exhausting, and it’s been everywhere. We’re done until Australia.

When you were writing this album, did you draw on your own teenage years?

No, I don’t think we did that at all. Rather than going into your memory and your past kind of vibe it’s more like a call to the future, to get re-invigorated with those feelings you used to have – not necessarily some kind of dumb high school relationship that was really dramatic, but more just like kind of unbridled excitement and passion and enthusiasm and wildness that you feel at that time in your life. I think it’s more like the songs are instilled with that… The name isn’t specific, it’s not a statement, it’s more an abstract thing that works as a feeling and in a certain way it felt really classic. I think we both were both similar – nerdy, church tutored a little bit, we both played music, both tried to follow the rules. I don’t know, we weren’t very exciting, I can say that. I think the process is always exactly the same. We’ve just been doing it longer together.

(more…)

Supported by: Owen Pallett

Sufjan Stevens has changed a lot in a few short years. The man behind Illinois is now charging things up with the electronic The Age of Adz and its stage show, making his way around the world when he once was a very enigmatic and elusive performer. His State Theatre show in 2008 is one of my favourite concert memories ever, so it was a matter of whether or not his Opera House show this year would go down quite as well. In a word, no, it didn’t. But why?

Before we get into that, let’s talk about Owen Pallett. After a run of incredible shows at the Spiegeltent last week, the Canadian took to the stage of the Opera House for a shorter set that was just as sweet. Though the intimacy of the Spiegeltent made for a much more immediate show where the intricacies of his playing were quite a lot easier to see and admire, the echoes of “Who is that guy? He was amazing!” after this set confirmed that despite the size of the venues where Pallett plays, he’ll always impress. This set did not include a cover (as has become customary in his others) and borrowed more heavily from Heartland and the Swedish Love Story EP, with only two tracks (‘This Is The Dream of Win and Regine’ and ‘Many Lives > 49 MP’, one of his most impressive vocal performances) from Final Fantasy releases. Pallett seemed completely at ease, joking around with the audience between songs, and the invisible barrier between crowd and performer ceased to even exist. It’s a big call to make but after seeing Pallett three times in the last week, there’s little chance that there’s a performer as genuine and innovative out there today.

Now. Sufjan. Everyone and their puppy dog has been waxing lyrical about the show, and while there’s no doubting that it was incredibly impressive on the technical side of things, there was just something about it that felt lifeless – which is a funny thing to say about a set that probably cost tens of thousands of dollars to create with its many lights and dancers and all sorts. The main part of the set drew from last year’s releases – the All Delighted People EP and The Age of Adz. Stevens walked out on stage clad in a Buzz Lightyear-esque getup and, with his ten-piece backing band, started proceedings with the title track from the EP, Simon & Garfunkel references and all. As the lights swirled, Stevens’ voice was sounding as pure as ever and the crowd actually did raise their hands as the lyrics dictated; but things started getting a little strange on the following tracks, ‘Too Much’ and ‘The Age of Adz’. First of all, they were extended to almost 15 minutes each, which seemed excessive, and secondly, Stevens himself seemed completely out of his element, awkwardly robot dancing throughout. These songs do not show off his vocal ability as well as his older material does, and though his backing band was impossibly tight the whole thing seemed incredibly self-indulgent after a while.

At one point, Stevens grinned and said “I’m a maximalist”, but this all made sense when he described the concept behind Adz, slideshow and all. It’s a homage to a bloke named Royal Robertson, one of those strange types with a fascination with aliens and outer space, and that explained the space theme of the night, Stevens’ costume and the huge difference between this album and previous ones. There’s no doubting that what we witnessed would have taken an excruciatingly long time to get together, and it was beautiful – two backing dancers often complemented the music wonderfully and lights flashed about, making for a true visual feast. But funnily enough, it was the naked songs in the main set that made for a glimpse into what Sufjan Stevens has always really been about – ‘The Owl and the Tanager’ gave us a snatch of that beautifully pure voice in an acoustic setting, and he seemed so much more comfortable when accompanied with nothing but his voice and a guitar than when surrounded by a bombastic band and light show.

Closing out the main set, ‘Impossible Soul’ – a staggering 25 minutes on record and just about the same here – showed exactly the extent of this new man, the one who has chosen hugeness over subtlety. Rainbow lights filled the stage and at one point Stevens descended in a bulb of light, stepping out in a huge headdress and skirt. Faithfully to the recorded version he also made gratuitous use of autotune (Kanye Stevens? Sufjan West? S-Pain?), and at the climax of the song balloons tumbled down from the ceiling and covered the ecstatic audience as Stevens sang “we can do much more together” before the song died down to its sombre acoustic ending. It was really a sight to behold and a joyful thing to be a part of, but when Stevens came back on stage, now in just a simple green shirt, the truest glimpse of what he’s come to be loved for was given.

The encore comprised three tracks from Illinois – ‘Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois’, ‘John Wayne Gacy, Jr.’ and, of course, ‘Chicago’. Stevens’ voice is not quite what it once was, struggling a little on the higher register of the middle song, and yet it was a wonderful throwback to simpler times, from the repeated piano upwards roll to the simple guitar strum and the massive track that propelled him into the ears, hearts and minds of many. ‘Chicago’ leapt from where ‘Impossible Soul’ had left off, with balloons still tumbling in a much fuller rendition of the track as Pallett joined on stage to dance.

What used to be so great about Sufjan Stevens was his ability to weave an entire world out of the simplest materials – a guitar, a voice and rarely anything else. Though Illinois was a little more flowery than his previous work, its stage show still required very little to convey the songs’ messages, and as such Stevens was one of the best in the business for unadulterated folk music, the simplicity of old and the quick wit of new. With The Age of Adz, there’s a sense of pompousness that can’t help but spill over into the live show. The album simply would not be able to connect if it didn’t have the light displays, the dancers, the extremely over the top stage show accompaniment. While it certainly was a visually stunning night with some good music to go along with it, so is a Muse show, or a U2 show. There seems to be none of the old Sufjan left, and though it’s such a hipster asshole thing to hate on the new stuff and beg for the old, he used to be much more meaningful than this.

Set:
All Delighted People
Too Much
Age of Adz
Heirloom
I Walked
All For Myself
Vesuvius
The Owl and the Tanager
Get Real Get Right
Futile Devices
Impossible Soul
—
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Chicago

For anyone playing at home in a different country, Australia Day is one of the finest days our nation has to offer, for it is then that the top specimens of the country come out to play. The Big Day Out festival is traditionally held on Australia day, attracting the best of the best – we here call them “bogans”. Observe:

So a lot of the day ended up being devoted to bogan-watching. Some highlights, as seen on my Twitter feed under the hash tag #bogandayout:

- Girl with “JBT” written on her back in zinc #bogandayout
- Group of dudes wearing matching green and yellow “BDO 2011″ shirts with a line each from the national anthem #bogandayout
- Poorly fitted Australian flag bikini with visible areola #bogandayout
- Dude wearing a singlet with a photo of a woman’s legs and the words “up the bum no babys” (sic) #bogandayout
- Dude with BDO timetable printed upside down on the front of his shirt for easy viewing #bogandayout

Bogans aside, BDO 2011 ended up being a pretty decent day. I’d only attended one of the events before in 2008 and found it to be an overcrowded day full of douchebags, but approaching it with a more open mind this year made for a much more pleasant experience.

(more…)