Before Warpaint went on they held an impromptu jam/testing levels and equipment session and I was very impressed. I was very excited to hear this all female band rock so hard considering my bias against most all female bands. I normally kind of get a "girl-power" vibe from most them that I find sort of distracting (e.g. the Donnas). Their playing was a dark, atmospheric, but sort of dancy style which immediately conjured images of post-punk music but at the same they had an almost early Pink Floyd feel. Think of songs like "Eugene be careful with that Axe"
They were all phenomenal musicians but the drummer's skills in particular caught my attention and she was pretty cute to boot. Needless to say, the set was just as good as the opening jam. I even bought their debut album, Exquisite Corpse (which is also the title of a Bauhaus song; more post-punk coincidences) and got it signed by all the members. They were very friendly and even talked to me about their influences; one band member said they were influenced by many things but in particular, head bands. So I asked her what she meant by that and she said "you know, Radiohead, the Talking Heads etc." and I could totally hear that in their music.
Then Akron/Family went on and they opened with a very hippie, earth-mothery type, drum machine tom tom beat over which the long-haired, mustachioed, guitar player asked us all to do a dance. The dance consisted of waving our arms over our heads like an underwater field of kelp or something and we all obliged because for some reason he was very convincing. This exchange was cool and I always like it when a band asks for audience participation, especially if they way they do it is a little strange. They then played a mellow, anticlimactic, hippie-ish song and for a second I was worried that the show was going to suck but then screaming feedback cut through the air and from there the whole concert got weirder and weirder, but in a good way.
They played a couple standard but charmingly eccentric rock songs punctuated by occasional blowing of a tin whistle or the lead singer putting the mic directly in his mouth and making melodic ooowwoo noises: a bunch of little things that sound strange but that were definitely sort of neat. The guitar playing in particular was excellent but I think that the band's weirdness turned off some in attendance but that didn't bother me because I was definitely enjoying myself. At other times they asked us to clap or sing along to their strange ballads and those of us who stayed once again obliged. A lot of people left but I kind of think they did so out of close-mindedness so it was probably better that they did.
Near the end of the show, which was very long thankfully, the lead singer asked us all to close our eyes and imagine a green meadow which he described in great detail and a light that was far away. The light, he said, represented all the things we each wanted in life and he told us to visualize it coming towards us and filling our field of vision and overwhelming us. He delivered this five minute long speech all over a trippy, whirring, synthesizer chord and once he was done with this description I will admit that I felt very happy and at peace. Once the chord stopped and he told us to open our eyes he said "happy birthday!" and they sung a song of the same title. There was so much benevolence and a willingness to open up and share with audience during this part of the show that it kind of reminded me of the Who's scrapped, Lifehouse project which was supposed to be a tour during which music would performed with that intention of makinf the band and audience come together as one for the duration of the show (the only song that was produced under this project was "join together"). It was a beautiful ending to the show.
Here are some videos:
Warpaint
Akron/Family
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