There are nights when the openers are openers; there are nights when the openers steal the show. Tuesday nightโs stacked lineup at Rickshaw Stop couldโve gone either way. During local one-man act Yalls, we found that audience members were either here for Small Blackย or forย Snowmine,ย exclusively. Despite the two Brooklyn-based bands being on a nationwide tour, Small Black fans had no idea who the supporting act was and, for Snowmine fans, the feeling was mutual. Regardless, everyone agreed that Berkeley kid, Dan Casey (who goes by Yalls in the electronic realm) was spinning some dance-floor worthy beats, but in dire need of better stage presence. Casey, hunched over a Macbook and mixing desk, stayed that way for the twenty-something minutes of his set. Excepting a few moments when he unexpectedly lifted his head to the mic to add a vocal layer to a couple of tracks, and even then, he hardly acknowledged the crowd. He mumbled through to the end, when he finally issued a clear statement: โIโve got one more for you.โ Then he returned his focus to his setup. Pity, because his last track was a beast of a finale. Pity, because his stage successors would put on a beast of a show, leaving Casey very little claim on the nightโs performance. Two months ago, Snowmine issued the following statement regarding their self-released, crowd-funded sophomore record, Dialects: There are no foreign samples on this album. Every single sound and orchestral moment was written, arranged, and recorded by us. The goal of the album was to capture a surreal ambiance that married hyper modern ambient synth tones with vintage 60’s sounding cinematic orchestral motifs. We recorded a choir, strings, woodwinds, and reamped synths in a church to capture truly real stereo reverbs, so in headphones you can feel physical, not artificially created space. These words materialized in the quintetโs live renderings of โRome,โ โFurther Along, Farther Away,โ and โPlans.โ After the first half of the set, frontman Grayson Sanders informed the crowd of the two-month old record, and switched over to old material, from 2011โs Laminate Pet Animal. The Snowmine half of the crowd cheered, and by this point, the Small Black half had warmed significantly. Their set culminated in โThe Hillโ and โLet Me In,โ two massive sounds, the first a groovy, syncopated, Bollywood-tinted tale, and the latter a symphonic serenade. The crowd regretted not calling for an encore after, a sentiment that could be sensed even by latecomers to the venue. In essence, Snowmineโs performance created a space for conversation, for Snowmine fans to exchange stories (and digits) with Small Black fans. And for Small Black fans to convince Snowmine fans to stick around for the headliners. In essence, the normally stagnant set change was not stagnant at all and the time it took for the stage crew to remove a snowy backdrop and place colourful floor lights was absorbed by audience membersโ impassioned speech. It appeared that Small Black had co-ordinated their attire. Wearing head-to-toe black, they started immediately with the laid-back, ambient โFree At Dawn,โ throwing โDespicable Dogsโ enthusiasts into a loop. But the group quickly redeemed themselves with those fans two songs later; Josh Kolenik introduced the group, removed his jacket (now he was the only member in white), and said, โThis is the song that started it all.โ His bandmates and the audience responded with a spirited delivery of โDespicable Dogs.โ If they were more grounded and loose during Snowmine, the crowd was more jumpy and hyper during Small Black. But Kolenik might have something to do with the audienceโs behaviour during the headlinersโs set. Jumping around manically himself, he struck Vogue poses, initiated hand clapping and fist pumping, and was all over the stage โ on occasion, he forgot to bring his microphone with him. Small Black effectively forfeited the โmore musically-soundโ category to Snowmine, but deserved an A+ for stage effort. The only other folly of Small Blackโs set, which included a rundown of tracks from Limits of Desire (2013), New Chain (2010), and their upcoming Real People, was a funky audio balance between the mics and amps. Kolenik couldโve been turned up and Ryan Heynerโs guitar couldโve been turned down. But this issue only lasted the first half of the show, before Heyner switched over to keys for their recently more electronic-based material. They played โProper Spiritโ โfor the losers,โ and they followed it up with โOutskirtsโ โfor the stoners.โ Kolenik kept up a self-critical banter with the audience, dubbing himself of the โloserโ category and actually apologized about his favourite band, mumbling a little about Small Blackโs The Blue Nile cover, โDowntown Lights,โ which will appear on Real People. Again, the highlight of the set came during the final two numbers, โPhotojournalistโ and โNo Stranger.โ The ensuing encore, which featured some old school material and โDowntown Lights,โ was unable to match that climate, but distracted minimally from an otherwise satisfying night. It wasnโt meant to be a competition, but Rickshaw Stop patrons filtered out, still chatting animatedly about which performance they preferred and introducing one another to the other bandโs work. Our verdict? Snowmine, without trying, had the same stage presence Small Black worked for all night. Sorry, Kolenik. Article and photos by Joanna Jiang Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) One Response The B-Side » Archive » Peaking Lights liven Mission District Saturday September 3, 2014 […] There are nights when the openers steal the show, but Saturday was not one of them. […] Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Δ
The B-Side » Archive » Peaking Lights liven Mission District Saturday September 3, 2014 […] There are nights when the openers steal the show, but Saturday was not one of them. […] Reply