LIVE REPORT ~ The Slants: March 23 2008
Lestats - San Diego, CA
There was a small crowd gathered in the dimly-lit live house of Lestats, San Diego’s hipster utopia for 24 hour coffee geeks and indie scene kids. The atmosphere was laidback and open-minded, the perfect setting for a slide by on all technical difficulties.
In this case, the technical difficulty was Aron, The Slants’s lead singer. He would be without a voice due to laryngitis. Jen Cho casually reassured everyone, “Gaijin and I will be singing in his place. As long as all the guitar strings aren’t broke and the drum is still relatively in use, I think we can all get by."
Each song packed a punch that had everyone’s eyes lit up and their ears completely in tune with the music. It wasn’t long before others and myself had filled the empty space in front of the stage with Chinatown-fused dance-rock energy.
Sakura Sakura is a song that piques the curiosity of the listener when it starts off with some eerie notes off the koto and slowly escalates to a more tantalizing, beastly sound that waxes off the surprise of everyone. I couldn’t help but notice that the small crowd seemed enthralled with this tune; even if their bodies weren’t moving, their faces certainly showed some form of interest.
Many of the songs go back to an older time and revitalize the sounds of Depeche Mode and Joy Division, but for the most part, each song is a unique treat. Given the way each of the members played, each one having their own distinct style, this emphasized the variant of songs played. Jen Cho and Gaijin pulled off the vocals admirably in addition to playing keyboards (not an easy feat, so that in itself deserves a small amount of applause).
I enjoyed this live more than the live I had attended at PMX because it was small and intimate. It was easier to slip into the music knowing I wasn’t alone and yet in a way I felt no different than when I was rocking out to The Slants blasting in my car. Lives carry a somewhat magical aura, and nothing boosts the energy more than hearing songs you’ve listened to constantly on electronic devices suddenly amplified before your eyes. In that sense, the size of the venue totally does not matter. It’s all about delivery, and once more The Slants delivered.
photos and report by Sarah
Thank you to The Slants for making this possible.
links
The Slants Official Website
The Slants Official MySpace
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