Weaving through New Haven's infamous club Toad's Place, one can feel the energy swirling around the air while the anticipated wait for music lingers; for Friday night's show, times were no different. Despite an unknown setback during Blonde Redhead's set, Toad's brought out a majestic side to the band.

Toad's is an interesting little club. It's one part Vegas lounge room, with dim green lighting, fake trees in the back of the bar with lights strung up, and wicker chairs. Meanwhile, the main stage area reeks of Irish pub, where people sat and watched a basketball game. There's low ceiling architecture, but it's high enough to feel more spacious and less like an industrial metal show. All it needed were some chains hanging down and Ministry on the stage and it'd work. However, tonight's bands, openers School of Seven Bells and headliner Blonde Redhead, made the club's tiny stage, bland black background, and the always-asthma-inducing fog machine work in their favor with an intimate indie rock show-and-tell, minus the telling.

School of Seven Bells introduced themselves, with ex-Secret Machines' Benjamin Curtis introducing his new band and jumping headfirst into the first song. The band is comprised of Curtis, guitarist James Elliot (who prefers to go by Ateleia,) and the twin vocalists Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On!Air!Library!

The music was hypnotic; an electronica Indian storm mixed with the twins' soft, at times highly harmonized female vocals, sliding right into the loud bass and sporadic guitar chords. The twins' sweet voices mixed well with the very tribal, chilled sound. Both Curtis and Ateleia had Mac book's open, as there wasn't a drummer, which, to be honest, wasn't needed.

Dark blue and purple lights filled the background as noise met beauty. The songs, at times, felt as if they didn't know where they were headed, but that's what made this band refreshing to listen to. The last song they played ended like a tiger roaring; feedback swirling as the girls, dressed in some sort of long dress/poncho arrangement, smacked tambourines and jangled with the beat. Sadly, this band only had an EP on vinyl for sale; look forward to an LP sometime in the future.

The wait for Blonde Redhead was torture; a fiendish countdown as more 20-somethings and New Haven hipsters entered the club, filling this room to almost max capacity. There was barely room to move, as "excuse me" was heard for almost a half an hour before the lights grew dim again. Fog rolled out of the machine as Blonde Redhead took the stage, and they were welcomed with a booming crowd. The guitarist and drummer, brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace, as well as singer/bassist/keyboardist Kazu Makino began to play and the whole room began to bob and sway. The wait was worth it, especially for those who were supposed to go the previous cancelled September show in this very venue.

During their second song, Makino stopped the group, apologizing to the crowd for unknown reasons, and started a completely different song. This is referred to as shoe gazing, the art of not really caring about a crowd and just performing and if the need to start over arises, it's understood and accepted. For this reviewer, this can be rather unprofessional and off-putting, but I began to see through the corporate rock world, catching some sort of atmosphere that really ignited the band's sound and presence. Blonde Redhead was on fire that night.

The drums sounded tight, with a nice kick, which is rare for Toad's acoustics. Makino rocked back and forth, leaping from guitar to microphone to keyboard each song, letting the audience sample her talents. Her vocals were eerie, a mysterious swoon one would hear in a French coffee shop. Amedeo peeled notes out, swaying with the crowd. The two bounced back and forth each song, trading vocals while the drummer continued to provide thorough work throughout the set. There was definitely a magic the band presented making up for their, at times, lack of professionalism.

Overall, both bands suffered from weak communication skills, which are typical for shoe gazing music, a practice which has been scarce for almost a decade. But what made it worth going was the super-streaming affair of magic that rode the air.

| 01.18.2008 | Review by Michael Levy |