"Welcome to your Sunday night rock 'n' roll show," Meric Long of The Dodos said to the audience early in last night's set at Vinyl in Atlanta's Center Stage complex. It seems that everyone was well aware of the day of the week, as the show started relatively early (by rock standards), 8:30 p.m., and with only two bands on the bill, I was home before 11:00 (in time to catch the second airing of The Walking Dead on AMC).
But first, before I watched TWD, there was in fact, a rock 'n' roll show, and a good one at that. Opening for The Dodos was a relatively new act, and truth be told, the real reason I headed out, Springtime Carnivore.
Springtime Carnivore (not to be confused with Portland's Summer Cannibals), is the project of singer Greta Morgan (Hush Sound, Gold Motel). She is pretty much the band, handling the vocals and guitar, occasionally moving to the keys, and even playing a song or two unaccompanied. The music was a bright and engaging pop-rock with touches of dream pop. Greta is a decent guitarist and has an incredible voice and good pitch, and it was a bit amazing to watch her effortlessly carry some of the higher notes of the songs without any apparent strain.
The self-titled Springtime Carnivore album dropped last year and although produced by no less than Richard Swift (Damien Jurado, Foxygen, The Shins, etc.), Springtime Carnivore's live sound is more rocking and less pop-sounding that the recordings suggest, and that's a good thing. Fans of bands like Alvvays and The Vivian Girls should find Carnivore enjoyable.
It's abundantly clear that Morgan has abundant talent and with a few lucky breaks could make it big in indie music (oxymoron?). Last night, Springtime Carnivore stole the show, at least to this member of the audience.
I was a bit surprised when The Dodos set up the stage with the drums right out in front (and feet away from me). Based on the fullness of their recorded songs, I didn't realize that they were in fact a drum-and-guitar duo (obviously, I'm new to their music).
The Dodos, who've been around for a while now, play a music that falls somewhere between shoegaze and garage folk-rock. Despite only having two musicians, they produce a wide variety of sounds, boosted by Meric Long's expansive pedal board and looping techniques, and refreshingly, they didn't have to rely on a laptop computer to provide samples and fill-in parts for the songs. Also, judging by their general demeanor and stage banter, they seemed like some genuinely good people, for whatever that's worth.
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Last night, they didn't have the back-up guitarist they brought with them to the Letterman show, and I understand that they used to have a vibraphonist fill in their sound But to be honest, they didn't sound like they were lacking much of anything last night.
For extra added bonus points, they brought Greta of Springtime Carnivore out on stage with them for the last song of their encore.
The Dodos clearly had some devoted fans at last night's show, with frequent shout-outs for favorite songs (they started their encore MTV TRL-style, letting the audience choose the song). Overall, it was a fun and instructive night, and I got to hear a new band with a lot of potential and an established act that was at lest new to me.
Plus I got home by 11 on the night before the work week started.
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