Alaska In Winter - Submerged (SXSW 2009; March 21)

Recently I had been wondering, “if a band is made up of only one person, do you refer to [insert band name here] as ‘them’ or ‘he’?” Brandon Bethancourt certainly answered my question last night, at least with respect to his own handsome “band,” Alaska In Winter. Bethancourt, who plays myriad instruments on the most recent Holiday, was “joined” on stage by multiple video-projected versions of himself playing each instrument in a slightly different getup: in blue-rimmed glasses playing the drums or keyboards, in lipstick and a wig singing backing vocals, dragging a bow across the key-tar, playing the ukulele, trumpet, etc.

Initially taking the stage sporting red jeans, a white dress shirt, skinny black tie and his signature Russian-looking (fur?) hat, Bethancourt later began to undress in a jokingly seductive way. It turns out this was due to (as he phrased it) “the demands of his band” as the onstage wardrobe changes were carefully choreographed to coincide with the visual progression of costumes onscreen, which in turn matched the sounds emanating from the laptop and Bethancourt’s voice on stage (wow, that’s a mouthful and an eyeful.) Though not as heavily used as on the albums, Bethancourt employed some sort of vocoder to give his voice that electronic effect which became so popular with Cher and the Hip-Hop/ R&B scene some years back, though it seems much more suited to the slow vocals and the hypnotic electronic sounds of Alaska In Winter’s music.

Throughout the set Bethancourt remained largely focused on getting all the pieces together---standing stage center playing his key-tar and singing---but he did step forward into the light to occasionally engage the crowd with a few gentle smiles. During “Speedboat to Heaven” he pointed to various audience members and then tapped himself while singing “you and me” (and incidentally, this track throws in a few notes of what I’m 98% sure is the theme from Top Gun. Ah, just one more reason to smile.) Though often more down-tempo than many other of the indie rock bands I saw this week, Alaska In Winter’s pulsing music managed to move the crowd to do just that; shift their weight and dance around to the upbeat Balkanesque elements layered on top of electro-pop beats. Bethancourt also garnered some smiles when he wandered over to an image of himself wearing a deer? head, and gestured adoringly to it as if he were engaged in a bizarre act of animal-courtship. Perhaps he gets lonely touring by himself. But you gotta love his sense of humor.

Overall I have to admit that I was impressed with the forethought and planning that went into the coordination of the visual and audio performance. I give Bethancourt (a.k.a. all present incarnations of Alaska In Winter) full style points for turning what could have been just another dude-on-a-laptop “show” into a full and entertaining performance of art, humor and, of course, music. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next time around.

P.S. Alaska In Winter’s Holiday features Heather Trost, we saw her playing with A Hack and A Hacksaw!

DOWNLOAD: Alaska In Winter - The Homeless and the Hummingbirds (MP3) or Follow us for more Alaska In Winter MP3s (Twitter)

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