I’d only seen THE RAVEONETTES on two prior occasions. The first time was at Little Steven’s Underground Festival back in 2004. I enjoyed their set, though they only got to play 3 or 4 songs. The next time was at the Across the Narrows festival at Coney Island back in October 2005, where they played an enjoyable forty-five minute set. Still, I’d never seen at an indoor venue, nor had I ever seen them play a full set.
Well, as of yesterday I can say that I have seen them at an indoor venue, though I still haven’t seen them play a full set as I missed their show at Johnny Brenda’s the night before. I partially made up for it by seeing this 30-minute set for WXPN’s Free at Noon showcase.
SUNE ROSE-WAGNER and SHARIN FOO both played and sang while sitting on stools, while their drummer played standing up, providing a nice contrast. They only played material from their new one Lust Lust Lust. Having only heard it once before aside from the new single “Dead Sound”, I was impressed but not blown away by it. I’m more partial to this band when they play faster and louder, as I don’t think they’ve quite mastered the art of the slow to mid-tempo shoegaze jam just yet. Nevertheless, the songs I’ve heard from this album (both live and on record) are definitely an improvement over 2005’s Pretty in Black, which slowed the frantic pace of 2003’s Chain Gang of Love down to a crawl. Most of it reminded me more of early ‘90s shoegazers like LUSH and MY BLOODY VALENTINE than of say, THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN’s Psychocandy. This not a bad thing, but generally I thought that this was, in the words of MISSION OF BURMA, good not great.
The above photo was taken by AMY DERMONT at their recent show at the Paradise in Boston. You can see the rest of her photos here.
