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| Kevin Henderson |
| The Raveonettes at Bimbo's last night. |
The Raveonettes
May 10, 2011
@ Bimbo's 365 Club
Better than: Love in a trash can.
Bimbo's 365 Club was built in 1931, during the latter years of Prohibition.
Despite its status as San Francisco's first modern nightclub, you can
still see design holdovers from the glory days of the city's bordello
past, such as the whimsically buttery studies of mermaid nudes lining
the walls inside. Entertainers including adenoidal Tony Martin and butt-naked Iggy Pop have capered and bellowed from this stage, which, when I arrived last night, was just beginning to draw the expectant attention of about two
hundred fans, most of whom looked a tad frumpy in such surroundings.
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| Kevin Henderson |
Tamaryn traffics in neogothic pavement psychedelia of the kind I've
doted on since well before walking into my first weed-drenched L.A.
room where Silversun Pickups or Darker My Love held forth. As befits
such grindingly slow and dreamily doomy music, the band performed in
darkness roughly the hue of 20-weight motor oil. My photographer,
snapping pics for practice on her night off, sniffed indignantly at
the inky shapes onstage and my own notes from the set are few and
illegible. Tamaryn's voice has some of Hope Sandoval's high
ethereal spookiness, but with a tincture of honeyed warmth impressive
on disc and to kill live. It was enough to give context to the dainty
mermaids hanging out at the bar.
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| Kevin Henderson |
The lights went up (to a startling degree), and the P.A. flooded the
room with soft innocuousness from the likes of Nat King Cole. The room
began to crowd, but the headliners didn't tarry, so by 10:30 the
audience was up to its earlobes in the wintry, crackling noise pop of
The Raveonettes. Tunes like "Heart of Stone" and "Love in a Trash Can"
romp like vintage psych nuggetry while displaying the slitting-edge
sparkle of a more cynical era. Still spry and full of jejune
wonderment a decade after the duo's first sessions in Copenhagen, Sune
Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo grinned at the audience like they wanted to
eat us, with latter beaming and chirping about the beauties of San
Francisco the same as everyone else does. "We just get a little shy
sometimes," Sharin cooed, as some nasal boor honked "Shaddup! Yer
gorgeous!" at her. We got an encore anyway, which came gentle as a
caress after all the preceding blunderbuss.
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| Kevin Henderson |
Overheard:
Mildly angry man: "So I told his fake-ass friend to haul his fuckin'
fat, fuckin' big, fat ass up the hill for his own fuckin' sandwich,
the fat-ass fuck."
Setlist for The Raveonettes:
Recharge & Revolt
War in Heaven
Let Me On Out
Dead Sound
Noisy Summer
Love in a Trashcan
Lust
Apparitions
Evil Seeds
Ignite
The Love Gang
My Tornado
Attack of the Ghost Riders
Heart of Stone
My Time's Up
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| Kevin Henderson |
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Location Info
1025 Columbus, San Francisco, CA
Category: Music
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