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Dirty Projectors take to the stage, heads down and with few words. They immerse themselves in their music and plough straight on with the set. Beguiling it is, too. The sense of confrontation and conflict present on the band’s record ‘Rise Above’ is enhanced live. For the most part it’s lush, delicately weaved vocal harmonies and guitar parts but occasionally this is punctured by loud bass and drum driven breakouts. It’s how each song has these unexpected elements and the sense of tension and build up that keep us interested. They close their set with the album’s title track ‘Rise Above’ – which is bought down to such an eerie quietness it’s almost silent before breaking out into the glorious “We are tired of your abuse” refrain. Brilliant.
The Blow is Khaela Maricich. She appears on stage asking “how naked are we going to get?” in softly sung a cappella whilst her fingers tap-tapping the microphone provide the beat. Aside from this opener the rest of the set is split between material from the excellent releases on which she collaborated with Jona Bechtolt of YACHT. Mostly it’s taken from 2006’s ‘Paper Television’ (one of last year’s best albums, for sure) with a couple of tracks from the ‘Poor Aim: Love Songs’ EP. On these her laptop provides the music whilst she sings, dances and tells stories between songs. Yes, she tells stories and talks a lot. And she’s actually funny, unlike so many singers whose ‘banter’ falls completely flat. But we could stand and watch and listen to Khaela all day. Alas, we have only an hour. Within this time though are squeezed some of the greatest pop songs written. From the sparse handclap and heartbeat rhythms of “Hey Boy” to the stuttering electro beats and sax of ‘Pardon Me’ and the shimmy and shake of ‘Parentheses’ each one is pure greatness.
We stand here dizzy and smiling, catching our breathe in time for the downbeat ‘True Affection’ in which finger clicks reign supreme whilst the vocals sends chills, full of the kind of desire that permeates so much of The Blow’s music.
