by John Massier, Prolonged Hacking and Gnawing blog:
"This is The Awesome Generation..."
That's what Dai Skuse of FASTWÜRMS turned and uttered to me halfway through the Handsome Furs show at Soundlab last Saturday. He was gently mocking the fact that "awesome" was the word most regularly hurled from the crowd toward the dynamic Montreal duo: "You guys are AWESOME!" "That song was AWESOME!" Thesaurasly-challenged maybe, but it was pretty freakin' awesome.
It's a crapshoot what happens when you catch a band at the end of a long tour. Worst case scenario is that the band hates itself and each other and plays out the clock with total apathy. Or, as was the case with the Furs, you get a performance that couldn't be any tighter. I love this band and would have been satisfied with any kind of show from them, but they far exceeded even my exalted expectations. This is not a case where the guy leads and the gal throws in some slight support. Dan Boeckner's stupendous guitar work and singing was equally met by Alexei Perry's tight drum machine and keyboard fills. A fine example of a young married couple in complete sync, firing on all cylinders. Boecker has a halfway-epileptic vibe that rachets up his performance, while Perry is almost inexplicably in complete movement all the time, between full-body head-banging and swinging her legs wildly up in the air at every opportunity. They would often just lunge their upper bodies toward each other in time to the music or being a song with foreheads touching, a brief huddle before the snap of the ball. Clearly, these two are crazy in love and they are channeling their mojo with complete ferocity.
Opening act The Cinnamon Band, a splendid duo of guitar/drums from Stanton, VA, were tight and good humored, so I think it was apparent to both bands that the crowd was stoked, which put all the musicians in a great headspace. The combustible result is still humming inside me a week later. Really something.Wow. Thanks to SOUNDLAB for bringing them to town. (photo: Dai Skuse)
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