Two years ago, Katie White and Jules De Martino formed The Ting Tings, a two-piece band exploding with catchy, upbeat lyrics and high-energy instrumentation. I first heard them while visiting my father in Connecticut. It was really late or extremely early, depending upon how AM time is viewed, and I caught a performance on an unfamiliar TV program. Their unbearably hypnotic beats sounded vintage. I liked them immediately but had no idea they were a new band ready to explode. I assumed it was a rerun and this was a band I had missed during the ’80s when I was too busy emulating Madonna and Janet Jackson.
Their quirky name is inspired by a Chinese woman that White worked with at a boutique named Ting Ting. In Mandarin, it is a term for bandstand, which immediately stood out to the singer when thinking about a name for the band.
The Ting Tings do not let their fans down when performing live. The energy level is maintained throughout, taking a minor break as White reveals her singing range in the song, “Traffic Light.” Fans slow down their stomping to take her in. Then, she announces, “You can all start fucking dancing now,” in her sweet British accent. The fans, of course, listen. They prolonged the intro of “Shut Up and Let Me Go” to expand upon everyone’s apparent excitement for the hit song. The floor beneath me, moving from the bass and hundreds of toes pushing against it, almost distracted me. Fans knew all the lyrics and White encouraged them to sing along.
De Martino is impressive in his multi-tasking abilities. He is often seen on stage sitting beside his drums as he plays his guitar and uses the foot petal to create a bass rhythm. If he has played this set twenty times already, it does not show. They both exhibit an impressive amount of commitment and stamina with each song. Sometimes, one can detect a hint of boredom from musicians, but The Ting Tings reveal nothing close to this. White dances on stage, moving all around with her microphone, attached to an extremely long cord. At one point, she kicks over the microphone to stand like a true rocker in her spandex leggings and black and white striped top, like a young Debbie Harry, all bleached hair and sexy attitude.
Between opening act and their performance, I chatted with a man behind me. I asked him if he was a big fan of The Ting Tings. He said, “How much can you like a band with one album?” I smiled and turned around as the show rapidly began and enthusiasm smeared its way into the crowd. Halfway through the show, he leaned into me with: “I’m a big fan now.”
I must give a shout out to those who rarely get noticed during a concert but deserve some praise. The Ting Tings stage crew did an incredible job being almost ahead of the musicians. When White kicked the microphone stand, one of the crew members zipped on stage and magically made it erect again. When the extremely long cord caught on a speaker, one came to unravel and offer length. Even in the end, when the band had left the stage and the house lights went up, one of the crew members threw out the set list to a lucky audience member.
From start to finish, they were on stage for only about an hour, which seemed like an abbreviated performance. However, no part of me felt discontented. After exiting the stage for what felt like too soon an encore reception, De Martino walked on with his guitar slung around him and he began playing with the synthesizer. He looked toward the audience with his neon-rimmed sunglasses and dramatically pressed each button. The first few notes to Run DMC’s “Walk this Way” came on and the audience went wild (though I wondered if half the audience were even alive when this song was at its peak.) Then, Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rappers Delight” merged into four or five notes of the Ghostbuster’s theme music. White entered the stage and sang two more songs, ending with “That’s Not My Name.” The crowd could have withstood more songs, however, they were left with a great workout and tunes imprinted into their brains at least for the night.
by Aimee Herman
[Photos: Amin Cárdenas Macias]
