Architecture in Helsinki

When the three male members of Phosphorescent took stage at midnight on Wednesday, October 10 at the Bug Jar in Rochester, many patrons who had toe-tapped and finger-snapped to Peter and the Wolf’s woozy set had gone off to bed and Conan, and the smack of billiards and crash of glasses in the bar in the next room were subtle and, however unintentional, complimentary to the band’s delicate performance. Vocalist/guitarist Matthew Houck sang his lonely, abandoned melodies through a mass of red beard and atop the keyboardist and the bassist/drummer who (names are sometimes hard to come by at late shows in the Flour City) often did both at once. The band’s sound throughout was as though they were forever performing a dirge that trembles and shifts but never explodes.

Evening’s first band, local A Wonderful (a fellow show-goer jokingly said, “You provide the noun”) played an enlivened set if only because they had four members to make noise with. They were the sort of pop songs that have climaxed once they’ve begun, so that you cannot await a shift or alteration until next song, a sound I’m generally ambivalent about.

Several times during the show, Wonderful’s bassist quit his instrument to pound with a large yellow shaker upon a snare drum on the floor, creating, along with the drummer, a contagious rhythm and topping anything else the band had going on. Vocalist and bandleader Tim Wilson used the sort of voice that seems to occur as a consequence of not singing enough. That is, not futzing around with what one’s voice can be and do outside of the voice used to sing a hymn at church or a lonely song on a long walk. Or perhaps vocalists who perform in this way do want to sound as vulnerable and effaced as they sound to me.

The duo of Peter and the Wolf took stage second, one on bass and backing vocals and the other on guitar, drums and some strange instrument I own a very generic version of but not a name. It makes sound by one’s plucking of metallic prongs and his was electric. What was most interesting and apparent about the band was its interest in classic song structure, employing spiritualized harmonies and doo-wop and even Latin influences. (I guiltily hummed Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time” between songs.)

Wolf’s set was intimate but, somehow, moving in a loud manner, surprisingly so with the limited number of limbs on stage. Particularly on the three numbers in which The Instrument was employed, a keen barrage of pleasant, unfamiliar noise complimented the more traditional (but how it sounded so new!) pieces.

Phosphorescent, with care for the red-eyed audience, played a short and satisfying set, including “Be Dark Night” (which longed for same) and “Cocaine Lights” from their new LP Pride, to be released October 23. Dirtier and more aggressive than the band’s first two LP’s, the songs portend a welcome transition for a band that takes its transitions slow.

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