Sometimes, you see a band and think, My God, why aren’t these people more famous? Why isn’t everyone listening to them? Why isn’t this place packed? I must admit, I felt a wave of that rolling through Portland’s Backspace as first Vivian Girls and then Sweden’s Love is All took the stage. The venue wasn’t quite packed and wasn’t quite sweaty, but there was something in the air; it felt like seeing something fun just before it explodes.
Although Vivian Girls are a Brooklyn band, they couldn’t be more rapturously than in Portland; if nothing else, it’s the kind of town that loves pretty girls playing simple, punchy music. I will admit, every member of the trio looks like a girl I’ve wanted to date for the last 10 years. And they certainly have stage presence- in particular, from the moment she stepped up to the mic, bassist Kickball Katy exuded a kind of punky, perky charisma that drew in the crowd. After some back and forth banter with lead singer/guitarist Cassie Ramone (primarily asking the crowd to raise their hand if they had tried to pull tonight and keep them up if they succeeded), Vivian Girls kicked it off.
If there’s one complaint I can really have with the band, it’s that when played live, most of their songs bleed and blend into themselves. I know it’s the point of the concept, but three chord songs with the same girl-group backing vocals all start to sound the same after 10 minutes or so. They play them with intense force and enthusiasm (particularly new drummer Ali Koehler, who treated her kit like it had personally offended her), but there’s only so much you can do with the basic formula. That said, the crowd loved Vivian Girls My diminutive companion and I had first attempted to stay close to the up-front action, but got pushed farther and farther back in the crowd until we finally gave up and took a seat at the bar. Backspace may have been half-full at that point, but everyone else who was there was on their feet.
After Vivian Girls took their last bow, they wandered the crowd and joined in the atmosphere, which I admired; many a rising rocker seems to have the impulse to suddenly hole themselves up behind a merch table or a booth once their set was done. However, my attention swiftly turned once Love is All climbed on stage. For a few moments, it was difficult to tell if they were tuning up or breaking into some kind of loose jam; it seemed like every member of the 5-piece was playing a brief solo spat and leaning back, until lead singer Josephine Olausson began a wail that rose up and up and up and the band suddenly broke into “New Beginnings” from their acclaimed new album A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night. At first, I was surprised (and a little disappointed) how closely they adhered to the studio version. I like to see, if not sloppiness, at least a marginal difference in voice or energy once a band is actually living and breathing and rocking front of me. Olausson sounded just as kittenish as on her best performances and each solo seemed dead-on as they took down track after track from A Hundred Things, and then the energy really seemed to hit them.
In short, Love is All seemed to let their hair down and every note, every screech was full of infectious power. In particular, saxophonist (and newest member) Åke Strömer took a hold of every extra moment he got and turned it into something wild and keening and wonderful; good choice with him, guys. The new tracks eventually segued into songs from their debut album Nine Times That Same Song, and brilliantly, into Flock of Seagull’s immortally cheesy “I Ran (So Far Away). That alone made their performance for me.
As we left the Backspace, out into the cold and wet November of Oregon, I still felt glowing; Love is All know what they’re doing. When you leave a rock show, you should feel connected and powerful and like you just witnessed something irreplaceable and cool. Love is All make it happen.
by Nathan Kamal
