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Article by Luis M. Soler, Photos by Jaime
Walden
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I’ve come to find
that Thursday nights are usually full of surprises. Whether
it’s running into that coworker you can’t stand
hanging out at your favorite bar, or seeing an old flame you
had just been reminiscing about, you can never really guess
what’s in store for the night as you’re pulling
on your favorite pair of jeans. I hadn’t heard much
of the Dutch Kills’ material, but enough to know (or
so I thought) what to expect as I headed out to the show.
Sensitive-guy yelping over interplaying guitar melodies, some
keyboard bleeps to keep things interesting- your standard
indie pop fare, right? |
| But as they launched into
the first song, “She’s a Star”, off of their
latest release Nothing Was Ever the Same, it became obvious
that this show wasn’t going to be as I expected. From
the first ringing notes, this tight five-piece out of Queens,
NY began weaving a sound that was both huge yet comfortingly
intimate, immersing the audience in a space in which dreams
would be shared and hearts would be bared. As the band played
on, their big, haunting music filling the basement of the
Delancey, I realized that the Dutch Kills had killed any preconceptions
I’d had about them. |
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Whatever you may have heard
or read about this band, there is no easy way of describing
them. Channeling REM, Bob Mould, Radiohead, a little Superchunk
and a dash of Robert Smith, the Dutch Kills’ exploded
singer-songwriter style stretches beyond the simple label
of “indie pop” while still paying homage to it,
layering harmony and emotion in a very distinct yet familiar
way. The bass and drums laid a solid foundation on which the
guitars played over and through one another with graceful
simplicity. The keyboardist added some whimsical texture to
the harmonies, even picking up an accordion towards the end
of the set for the song “Semi”. Through it all
frontman Nick Altebrando’s sentimental lyrics, supported
by Kevin Hodge’s backup vocals, floated in a touching,
oddly nostalgic way, the only beacon in a sound so big you
could get lost in it. |
Melodies dripped out
of the air like ghosts, changing and turning back around
on themselves, so that as soon as you thought you’d
heard them they was already gone, back to the shadows to
play with the others. The beginning of the second song,
“Planes” opened with some ambient bass, sounding
like a huge, wet heartbeat, the song then slowly building
up to a soaring chorus. Two thirds of the way into the set,
“Katherine” switched things up a bit, throwing
some dirt and gloom on everything, upping the angst factor,
but soon we were right back to that wistful, poignant place
with “Stormclouds”. During the set, those people
who weren’t staring raptly at the stage had been unselfconsciously
making out, reliving bygone teenage days of summer heat
and too much time on your hands. The set ended with “Anchors”,
from their first EP Scale 300 Feet to the Inch, the band
slowly bringing us back to Earth, releasing us from the
spell they had cast.
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Don’t
pass up the chance to see these guys. It was nice to see
a band that not only played tight and solid but also didn’t
care for posturing and pretentiousness. For good reason
this group is generating a buzz on the scene, and if you
don’t see them soon, you won’t be able to say,
“Oh, I saw them when they were still playing the clubs…”
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