Music Under Fire

Monday night (8/18/08) at one of Philadelphia's most beloved, yet horribly ventilated venues, The Trocadero Theatre featured a sweaty, young crowd dancing to the first act Shy Child, Jaguar Love and the headliner The Faint.

Shy Child



I could have guessed Shy Child was from from NYC by the way Pete and Nate ripped it up via keytar and a riveting performance on the drums. This was a fitting start for the night to gear up for a large volume of synthesized music soon to follow. Although not much of the words could be heard, the vocals were drowned out by the sheer number of words being sung simultaneously with each note.

For Shy Child however, their performance was fit to be an opener. Their sound is heard much better through their recorded and perfected songs. Some of the melodies and rhythms were not as conductive as one may think, but when you're in NYC, there's a misfit song to match almost anything. Afterall, we didn't expect them to strike gold on every song. But nonetheless, they were a crowd pleaser to the leatard and sunglass-filled crowd, anticipating what each consecutive song would bring. All they needed was the keytar and the crowd was sold. Most noteworthy from the performance was the drumwork laid down, as it was the best out of any group the entire night.

Official site - http://www.shychild.com/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/shychildmusic

Jaguar Love



What got me anticipating Jaguar Love was the loopy sound check. Lead singer, Johnny Whitney could barely wait to get on stage as the sound check was enveloped with "Yeah Philadelphia! Check Check, yeah!!!"

The forty-five minute performance that would soon follow carried forth the same energy and the same wild vocals (we could barely get a still picture of him). The first impression you may get when seeing Whitney on the stage is the amount of energy he posesses, then you're mind will move more towards the looks of the whole situation. Just as Jaguar Love chases the Art Rock sound around Portland Oregon, Whitney's looks would betray a fellow NJ Bon Jovi fan into thinking he might be his stunt double.

Aside from the looks, the final realization comes down to his vocals. Their first song was a monster song, a fulfilling change from a two-man-show, to a fully stacked band. Yet, at this point, Whitney's vocals had not yet set in. It was only until their second song that I had realized the level of screeching vocals would not cease until the end of their set. Each song forward was no better than their first song, mainly in part due to the vocals. In an AC/DC style of singing, the show became more and more unbearable and made me focus on the other members of the band and the songs themselves.

It was until then, when their "love song" was introduced for those going through hard times. Despite this being the only lull in fierce vocality throughout the show, the song turned quite off-kilter for the crowd. The band had indeed stepped outside their boundaries and nothing seemed to click. It was at this point that Louis XIV came to mind. Although their style is more tamed than JL, there was only one thing I could focus on throughout their performance. The Troc was still filled with excitement, and overall Jaguar Love put out a decent performance as a whole.

The band put out a load of energy and the mix of having a keyboardist, drummer, bassist, lead guitar and vocals left little more to be desired from a show from an instrument standpoint.

Official - http://www.matadorrecords.com/jaguar_love/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/jaguarloveband

The Faint



The crowd volume simmered as the last solo stage crew member tightened up a few plugs around the microphones in front of the stage -a few may have suspected this was the lead singer, or perhaps the keyboardist they knew blew out their speakers with the bass and synthesizers that drove their fans into the packed crowd. The Faint obviously had some presence here.

The show started off with a bounce; heart-thumping bass was pumped into the crowd as Todd Fink (vocals), clad in a lab coat and protective goggles, monotoned his way through the setlist. The Omaha, NE group's experience with crowd-pleasing was noticable, as "The Geeks Were Right" had the crowd screaming from the first milisecond and never let up. This style of dance-punk/new wave had the crowd more rowdy than any mosh-pit I've seen. The entire crowd was on their toes, dancing in utter joy.



The Faint have three things going for them: 1) Fink doesn't need to be able to sing, as he didn't have to slip out of his robot-like vocals the entire set 2) Nobody needs to know how to dance to their music, which may have spurred some of the worst/best dancing I've seen in years. And 3) Bass, bass, bass. The crowd knew the songs because of the very talented and creative synth player Jacob Thiele - and the bass was louder and lower than I've ever heard. This also marks my first ever synth/bass-solo experience.



Another small, yet extremely ideal part for the band were the guitars laid down by Dapose (or Michael Dappen). The pedals used matched the wild club lighting fluctating to some nifty new-age sounds, which fit directly into the songs they played. There were only a few rare moments of downtime in their set. The few of these were marked by songs off of their latest album, Fasciinatiion.

MP3: The Faint - The Geeks Were Right (buy)

The Faint put on an all encomassing dance performance by not only the band (who were practically out of breath mid-set), but for their fans, who were given everything they could have asked.

Official - http://www.thefaint.com/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/thefaint