Cibo Matto at The Earl, February 17, 2014

After a 15-year hiatus, New York's Cibo Matto are recording and touring again, and on Monday night their tour brought them to Atlanta.  There was a time back in the 90s when my favorite bands were those genre-bending groups like Soul Coughing, Cibo Matto, and of course, Massive Attack, and now I've finally seen all three live.

Brooklyn's Salt Cathedral opened.

It being Monday night and all, I got there a little late, and Salt Cathedral were already playing when I arrived, although I think I still managed to catch most of their set.  The Earl was packed, especially for a Monday night and especially that early (9:45 or so), but I still managed to get reasonably close to the stage without too many people in front of me.

Salt Cathedral are a really good band with a great sound.  Unfortunately, that sound is a lot like Polica's. There are far worse bands to sound like, and Salt Cathedral doesn't sound imitative - they don't share Polica's two-drummer assault, for starters, and Salt Cathedrals' lead singer might even have more range than Polica's  Channy Leaneagh.  But after their fine set was over, The Earl played Polica over the PA and the sound was almost identical.  I don't mean to be critical - I really like Salt Cathedral and wish them the best - but they need to find something distinctive in their sound to set them apart from Polica, or they might otherwise get overlooked, and they deserve wider recognition. 

Photo by Alex Weiss

If anything, I was sorry to hear their set end when it did, even though I had been waiting 15 years to hear Cibo Matto.

Photo by Alex Weiss

They opened their set right where they had left off, as if those intervening 15 years hadn't happened, opening with three of the deliriously lovely trip-hop songs (Sugar Water, Beef Jerky, and Pain du Perdu) from their 1996 debut, Viva La Woman.  These songs were performed with just the two original members, Yuka and Miho, on stage, singing over recorded clips of these early hits. 

A drummer and a guitarist/bassist joined the girls on stage after the first three songs, taking the band through selections from their 1999 follow-up album, Stereo Type A, and their new record, Hotel Valentine. Highlights included Moonchild, Deja Vu, MFN, and Empty Pool. To close their set, they played their new 10th Floor Ghost Girl, and for their encore they performed House Keeping from the new album, followed by the crowd-pleasing Birthday Cake from Viva La Woman.  

Despite some earnest requests form the audience, they never got around to White Pepper Ice Cream.

In all, it was a wonderful night, discovering a terrific new band (Salt Cathedral) and hearing an old favorite (Cibo Matto) I thought I'd never experience live.