Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids & Elvis Perkins London Shepherds Bush Empire, 13/2/07
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Elvis Perkins is an unprepossessing rock star- a gaunt figure, hunched awkwardly over a guitar, his between-song banter rarely rising above inaudible mumble. But his half-hour set is really quite beguiling: a blend of mid-period Dylan and latter-day folkies like Beirut. An elegiac 'Good Friday' bears the hallmarks of Arcade Fire's 'Rebellion (Lies)', whilst CYHSY frontman and various members of the Cold War Kids take to the stage at the close for a nigh on euphoric full stop to it all.
The much-discussed Long Beach quartet Cold War Kids ascent to the stage- all flailing limbs, tight t-shirts and Ben Folds-gone-stadium-emo melodic expansiveness. They've a gripping presence - energetic, mobile and not a little charismatic, with some truly colossal drumming that dominates their sound. The chiming, Echo & The Bunnymen meets TV On The Radio anthem 'Hang Me Up To Dry' inevitably gets the biggest cheer, but Cold War Kids have got plenty of musical weaponry in their arsenal.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are, to say the least, an intriguing band. That the Brooklyn quintet, only formed a couple of years ago, having gained cult transatlantic fame via an internet buzz and a set of home-recordings can pack a couple of thousand people into Shepherd's Bush Empire would be strange enough. But when they achieve their success sounding like this...sheesh. It's weird, certainly (not least singer Alec Ounsworth's high-pitched nasal whine) yet strangely compelling. They jangle with the intrigue of early REM. They squawk with the abandon of classic Pavement. But they infuse their sound with a peculiar mystique of their very own. This is best evidenced on older favourites such as a triumphant 'Is This Love?' and a captivating 'Over and Over Again (Lost & Found.)'
Material from recent second album 'Some Loud Thunder' is possibly even odder. 'Yankee Go Home' channels the quiet-loud-quiet menace of vintage Pixies, with Ounsworth's vocals here resembling the tremulous wail of the Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, and sounding really rather disturbing in the process.
'Satan Said Dance', meanwhile, is just mental. Quite aside from the eminently unsettling lyrics ('My head turns white / and my face is green / but my feet are still moving / if you know what I mean...' erm, not really Alec, but do go on...), this track rocks with the celebratory synth-pop flair of 'Hot Fuss'- era Killers as covered by a John Peel-endorsed troupe of brain-melting sonic terrorists. And you don't get that at a Snow Patrol gig.
Defiantly, joyously idiosyncratic, tonight CLYHSY possess an otherworldly allure of their very own.
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