One of the reasons STS9 is the best live in the world is that they understand the significance of holidays. Sure, they kill it every night with their trailblazing mix of live and electronic music, but to them, occasions actually are causes for celebration. It’s a challenge to top the energy and excitement of their normal shows, but without fail, they somehow find ways to do it up a bit bigger on holidays. For the third consecutive New Year’s, they painted Atlanta’s Tabernacle brown, and in true STS9 fashion, compensated for my lifetime of shitty NYE’s with one of the most special live performances I can remember.
Some past STS9 NYE celebrations have been superficially huge. Last year, garish floral decorations, a massive wall of nights, and an all-star team of openers made the year-end bash a big deal. The effort was widely appreciated, but the show felt more like a spectacle than a concert.
The accoutrements were decidedly less grandiose this year. Instead of the towering wall of lights and mildly menacing horticulture, the visual display was a semicircle of LEDs. Instead of Prefuse 73, STS9 opened for themselves this year, starting the show with a set of remixes and prototype material entirely from their laptops. In most ways, it was simpler this year, and the decrease in pageantry allowed the band to focus on the music which was immeasurably better than, well, anything else—ever.
The wonder started immediately. The quintet opened with the long-awaited unshelving of “T.W.E.L.V.E,” a classic fan favorite played only twice since 2005. Still, David Phipps’ jittery keys flitted atop drummer Zach Velmer’s 1/16th notes like the two have played the song every day for the past year. The song itself, vital and stirring, is special, and just witnessing a song like that is better than watching the ball drop. But by bringing it back and starting the show with it, the band made it clear that this night was not like other nights. Some bands set things on fire, some people eat from the fine china-STS9 kills it with old material.
The band blazed through set one with staples like “F. Word” and “Really Wut?,” showing why they are some of the most exciting musicians today. Velmer threatened to set his high-hat and snare drum on fire during the moody “Luma Daylight,” and the dance floor shook as Hunter Brown and David Murphy blazingly dueled samples during the set-closing “instantly.”
New tune “You Don’t Say” started set two, and as its shimmering samples faded, bassist Murphy grabbed a microphone to usher in the New Year with a countdown wholly appropriate for this show. “We’re on our own time y’all,” he said, well past midnight. “10-9-8…Happy New Years!” as balloons rained from the ceiling, champagne flowed, and lovers gratefully kissed in the dark. The band improvised with electro-composer Richard Devine before ringing in 2007 with yet another revival.
When the blissful opening riff of rarity “Life’s Sweet Breath” poured out of Brown’s guitar, even those concertgoers buried beneath the influence could feel that something was up. You didn’t have to know “LSB”’s playlist history to cherish its placement. With its graceful tempo and gorgeous guitar lead, “LSB” sounds like swimming in a rainbow, and all year I’ll remember it as the first song I heard in 2007.
The touchy-feeliness soon ended but the joy of the festivities did not. Eschewing beauty and elegance, STS9 busted out its most booty-shaking tunes to close the show. Accompanied by Devine, the Tabby pulsed and swayed as the STS9 faithful danced with elation to newish bangers like “Be Nice” and “Aimlessly.” Everyone’s favorite “Ramone and Emiglio” smoked, but the obscure “Kaya” truly stole the show. Murphy’s mischievous bass lead gave way to Velmer’s speedy tempo until Brown put a big exclamation point on a special night of music and celebration. It is usually the duty of the guitarist in instrumental bands to make the music interesting: with complex, instinctive fretwork, HB deserves a medal for this song. Not a face was left ungrinning when the tune ended, nor when, around 2 AM, the music stopped for good.
I can’t say that about past NYE parties. Nearly every New Year’s celebration I’ve ever been to has been plagued with a legitimate “is this it?” All year, NYE gets built up to be some kind of life-changing festival, but there are problems if my year was lame enough not to earn more than a stupid countdown and awkward PDA at its close. Escaping year upon identical year of counting backwards to a dud, I got to ring in the New Year with a brilliant band, and with strangers so happy not to be in a bar that they not only share hugs, well wishes, and smuggled champagne, but also don’t care that their countdown was at least 10 minutes late. Ultimately, this is the STS9 aesthetic: more important than gestures and orthodoxy is genuinely celebratory energy. This band has always been about defying expectations through passionate music. Thank god they play on New Year’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment