Silversun Pickups, Cage the Elephant – Live @ The Vogue

Let’s start by clearing up some myths that may (or may not) have been circulating:

Myth #1: Silversun Pickups front man Brian Aubert’s voice is soaked in effects and audio trickery to get that weird breathy sound.
Nope, he really sounds like that. Even when he talks.

Myth #2: Reviewers of shows remove their bias when writing about music.
Nope. I’m definitely a SSPU fan. The kind that learns to play “Substitution” on guitar.

Myth #3: Pretty girls like to kiss each other and make out in front of people, even when they’re not currently on a reality show.
Uh, evidently that one’s actually true. At least from my observations at my perch by the bar Tuesday night.

Now that there are some random facts established, let’s dolly the camera back and get an establishing shot: my friend and I walk through the puddles on College Avenue in time to get in the front door of the Vogue, along with hundreds of mostly responsible looking folks, about 20 minutes before Cage the Elephant takes the stage. We pick a spot next to the bar, roughly 50 feet from the stage and on its level. Then some punk kids hoping to channel Iggy Pop and Kurt Cobain splatter themselves onto the stage and a rock show suddenly begins.

I’d never heard Cage the Elephant before this show, but by the third song or so I felt my years and their pesky accumulated maturity being replaced by a somewhat familiar and ignorant youthful attitude/mood/swagger. Perhaps I was just an aging mirror, accidentally reflecting a fraction of frontman Matt Shultz. That kid expends more energy than what seems could possibly be created by his wee body. Though his antics sometimes felt too exaggerated, he and his equally ragged band mates really brought an interesting fistful of genres, from the aforementioned iconic punk style to dance-punk and even rockabilly, all of it retro-fitted with ironic t-shirts and lots of stage-diving. LOTS.

Standout song: “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”

So, the girls kissing. It was weird. During the change of stage from Cage to Silversun, two nearby girls got kinda public with their displays of affection. This review may not be the format to air my opinions on the subject, but let’s just say this: PDA is not cool. It induces an eye roll. Then gets an added audible sigh when PDA is between two girls who seem to feed on attention from nearby males.

Lesson: Enjoy your relationship, but not at the expense of respecting yourself.

Moving on… Silversun Pickups might be formulaic sometimes. Build and build and then think about moving on to a climax or a next logical plateau, but instead just keep building anyway. Eventually, they just go for it. I guess it’s musically tantric. I’m okay with that formula. In fact, I love it.

So opening their set with “Rusted Wheel,” with its long washy, shiny intro, translates that “build-up” formula to the long-form of a concert. Transitions were seamless from song to song. Then came their fifth song: “The Royal We.” Not until the song was two-thirds complete did Brian Aubert make a transition from the breathy: “We went in straight for a defeat, you will be relieved,” to the snarling command: “So relieved, so relieved to the flow and desire!” But following a song like that, the crowd needed a break. After telling a quick story about the band’s first experience at the Vogue, the excellently riffy “Little Lovers So Polite” began from their debut Carnavas, now over three years old. The next song jumped ahead in time to the recent “It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone.”

(Side note: So what did they do in the three-plus years between Carnavas and Swoon? I’d guess they wrote and rewrote like hell. I can almost imagine that they wrote an album and never released it, just to skip out on the curse of the sophomore album. Other than the whole writing thing, I suppose Brian grew a beard, bass player Nikki Monninger shopped for prom dresses to wear on tour, and keyboardist Joe Lester – the most humble musician ever – probably read a book or 40. I’d also guess that drummer Christopher Guanlao worked hard at growing the best head of hair in rock music, then choreographed his drum parts. Yes, choreographed.)

True to form, the band waited until the very end of their set to play favorites like “Panic Switch” which bled into “Lazy Eye.” Then they exited the stage with a wink-wink and an “aw, shucks” return five minutes later. And I was glad, because I needed to hear “Subsitution” live. They obliged as though they heard me scream that title, even over all the hoots and hollers of a thousand people. They connected directly with me, which is all anybody really wants in a concert.

Tagged as: Indianapolis, Indie Rock

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