Tell Me Where You've Seen My Life

Annuals

Tuesday night at the Granada Theater started with opening act Annuals, a band from Raleigh, North Carolina. My only exposure to them had been the track, Brother, which Pitchfork had posted on their site late last year. They made a quick impression with an upbeat song featuring two drum sets and two keyboardists. Their set had some ups and downs in interest level for me, but when they kicked in the extra percussion (up to 4 guys playing drums), they really did rock and gave off a fun vibe. They finished off their set with the song Brother which sounded great. I found the set interesting enough to push me to pick up their debut CD, Be He Me.

Blonde Redhead

Blonde Redhead is an experimental indie rock band from New York that first formed in 1993. I first listened to them back in early 2005 when I ran across a copy of their sixth release, Misery Is a Butterfly. Their latest, 23, was just released last month, and it has quickly become one of my favorite CDs of 2007. This new release moves more towards dream pop with lush sounds, haunting melodies, and hypnotic vocals from Kazu Makino and Amedeo Pace. The band leaned heavily towards the new release playing excellent versions of 23, Spring and by Summer Fall, and Publisher. The trio's stage setup included a life sized horse statue that Makino used to sit on when she played keyboards. I was very happy to hear them play Falling Man from their last release as the first song of the encore. They finished off the night with the song Top Ranking featuring layered vocals from Makino.

Overall, it was a solid night of music that piqued my interest for Annuals and really increased my growing admiration for Blonde Redhead.