Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power and Super Furry Animals
Lounge Ax, Chicago (March 26, 1999)
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Olivia Tremor Control
Lounge Ax, Chicago
March 26, 1999 |
But luckily the Athens, GA, psychedelic popsters picked as opening acts on their latest tour two groups perfectly suited for ushering in the Olivias' unnaturally beautiful music.
Athens counterparts Elf Power and Welsh melodic hooligans Super Furry Animals did great respective jobs of enthralling the Lounge Ax audience of Friday, March 26, but both bands ended their performances with energy pointing toward the rest of the evening.
Elf Power, like their headlining Elephant Six cohorts, sung rock songs from distant lands. Describing scenes like the strange local customs in "Parade of the Bengal Tigers," the band tended to introduce modest pop songs, only to stretch them out into little rock epics, a la Built To Spill. A treat for the ears indeed.
Afterward, the Super Furry Animals continued the upbeat feel of the night, managing to float suprisingly good harmonies over a sometimes eardrum-challenging keyboard and guitar attack. The quintet stretched its set to the limit, playing until the soundman gave the "one more song" cue. But soon the stage was in motion again, setting up for the Olivias to the tune of Built To Spill's Keep It Like A Secret.
The Olivias brought a veritable armada of assorted instruments to the stage, and as bassist John Fernandes pulled down a projection screen behind the drum kit, it became most apparent the evening was just getting more interesting.
The Olivia Tremor Control experience has a root or two wedged solidly in the fertile soil of the late '60s rock -- The Beatles and Pink Floyd come to mind most vividly -- but also a set of branches growing with fervor toward places new and completely original. A song begins with a pretty straightforward guitar-based hook, ventures off into pop bliss, then nosedives into a river of improvisational chaos, which somehow resolves itself in any variety of ways, making one wonder whether the band members planned things that way or they're just all having the same dream.
Similarly obtuse images played across the screen at the back of the stage, while the Olivias switched instruments and navigated their way through an hour and a half of psychedelic pop pandemonium. At times, band members tucked various percussive instruments under their arms while they played others. Guitarist Bill Doss laid out a treasure chest full of assorted instruments including a small brass horn and a mortar-and-pestle, and amazingly got mileage out of the whole collection during the set.
The band's intensity filled out an evening of great rock and roll, where originality and dedication left an audience with ringing ears and satisfied smiles.
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.