We Went: The Raveonettes at Neumos

Seattlest first heard about the Raveonettes from a troubled, neurotic friend. He recommended their '03 release Chain Gang of Love, which struck us as analogous to that friendship: addictive and harping on the same two or three themes.

The dark, early '60s-nostalgic Danish pop group played at Neumos this weekend, and the show too was like that odd, long-ended relationship. The first three songs gave us goosebumps, and the rest of the set (with the exception of a couple songs from 2008's Lust, Lust, Lust) made us feel dizzy and weary. Walking away from the show, we agreed with our show-going companion that the Raveonettes are more interesting to listen to at home when you can track the theoretical progression of their projects.

At the show, Sune Rose Wagner was dressed like an emo jailbird rocker with fluffy hair and Sharin Foo looked like a platinum blonde flapper. For about an hour, they exchanged meaningful, frequent "We're in this together" glances as they sang about dysfunctional relationships (ahh, memories) in the same couple keys. "Love In A Trashcan," the single from '05's Pretty In Black, was awesomely jangly. "Seductress of Bums" was a delight to hear live. The drummer was a delight to see live; she looked fierce, like she was holding back tears because she's approaching this music with courage, goddamnit, and she will overcome! That was our impression, anyway.

Be Your Own Pet opened, and we suffered through a couple songs before we absolutely had to escape to Moe Bar. They play angry, simple, loud rock involving ample scissor kicks from the guitar players and spastic "I'm getting electrocuted by my own music" contortions from the lead singer. When the songs are at a constant climax, there's nothing much to look forward to, and it was hellish to watch them spaz out onstage, completely oblivious to the stoic, stone-faced crowd. Hellish. If there's one thing we appreciate more about hiphop after this show, it's the crowd involvement. Dance, people! The stage is not a television!

Somewhat unrelated sidenote: we just came across this Wikipedia (yeah, yeah, we know) interview with Sharin and Sune, and it's a fascinating read. They talk about their own deaths, blowing up China versus India, and long-distance dating, among other things. They also discuss the Dogme influence in their early work, which we had to look up. Apparently it's a Danish minimalist movement in film, started by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, involving a vow to abide by certain rules in the creation of film. The Raveonettes set up similar restrictions for themselves while working on their early albums; Whip It On and Chain Gang of Love are both composed of very short songs all in one key (B flat minor and B flat major, respectively).

Photo by Soeren Solkaer Starbird, courtesy of the Raveonettes on Myspace. Sune was totally wearing this same shirt at Neumos last night!