Atlas Sound + Neon Indian - E&L Auditorium (New York, NY; Feb. 4, 2010)

Seeing Neon Indian play with Atlas Sound at NYU’s E&L Auditorium on Thursday night was like going to two completely different shows back-to-back. Although, on record, the two bands produce similar sounds—both characterized by a fuzzy, lo-fi hazy vibe—the groups chose to take those vibes in completely different directions on stage. Where Bradford Cox stripped down Atlas Sound’s instrumentation even further, Neon Indian ramped up the intensity and put on a dance party. It was an odd juxtaposition, to say the least, but it was a juxtaposition that worked.

As soon as Neon Indian took the stage the crowd was with the band, heads bobbing to the grooves laid down by Alan Palomo and company. The synths, a defining strong point of Neon Indian, shimmered across the top of the rest of the band’s instrumentation, pausing occasionally to let stellar guitar work from Ronald Gierhart take the reins. The songs, drawn from the band’s debut Psychic Chasms, had a sharper edge to them, dropping fuzz in favor of crisp keyboard riffs and singing guitars.

Between songs, Palomo composed glitch interludes, playing with effect knobs across both stereo channels to force lingering melodies to descend into a fog before the drums and guitars launched into a new cut. It was an interesting choice, and one that gave the set a roller coaster feel: a danceable song followed by a sonically interesting but rhythmically lacking break; lather, rinse, repeat.

Due to the repetitive structure of Neon Indian’s music, the songs themselves also had a cyclical sort of lull to them, wherein the audience would enthusiastically begin dancing at the start, only to slowly fade to standing as the song progressed. Still, those short bursts of energy were enough to sustain the show. The short set (Neon Indian only has thirty minutes of recorded music to draw from, after all) was highlighted by a run of the band’s best tunes, “Should Have Taken Acid With You,” “6669 (I Don’t Know If You Know),” and “Deadbeat Summer.” They finished off with a rocker kick, building up to a climax, reducing it to nearly nothing, and then showcasing some gnarly guitar rips from Gierhart. The set was fun, if nothing else – a synth-heavy dance set that warped tracks from Psychic Chasms into superficial hit-it-and-quit-it tunes. I had a great time grooving to the set, but I doubt that it will stay with me for long.

Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound set, on the other hand, will stick in my mind for some time to come. Where Neon Indian took fuzzy tunes and made them danceable, Cox took ethereal songs and made them tangible. Alone with an acoustic guitar and a handful of harmonicas, Cox alternately recalled Bob Dylan, Nirvana, and Animal Collective as he brought Atlas Sound tracks to life, expanding upon them and exploring them on stage. Watching him perform, it is evident that he knows his instruments well; he pounds out percussive beats on the body of his guitar, loops pick strums across muted frets, allows a single note to sound alone on the harmonica. Occasionally he lets the guitar open up full throttle, producing an intricate wall of noise within his layered loops. Elsewhere, he effectively holds it back, throwing the focus on his lyrics and voice.

“Is this different from what you expected?” Cox asked the audience during a pause three songs into his set. His preference, he admitted, is playing solo, since it allows him to control the flow of the music. “With a band,” he complained good-naturedly, “you have to look at them and shit.”

“Plus,” he added, “my mom likes it better this way. The other way it’s too loud.”

The set still had its loud moments, swirling guitar loops pushing against the ceiling of tolerable volume at times. More often, however, the lyrics shone through; songs like “Criminals” and “Attic Lights” took on new levels of clarity, tactile and honest as they floated out of the speakers. “Walkabout,” a tune recorded with Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox (rumor has it that band’s Avey Tare was in attendance for this show) and “Shelia” were other highlights of an altogether meaty and stellar set.

It was once said about pianist Arthur Rubenstein, “[he] makes mistakes on some of his records, but I’ll take those interpretations that are filled with passion over the technical wizard who can play the notes but can’t convey the meaning.” I can think of no better way to describe Atlas Sound’s set at NYU on Thursday night. Technical mistakes—though few and far between—were mere casualties on the path to pure expression, a single man putting his full heart and hands at the disposal of beautiful songs. Defying expectations, Bradford Cox picked up a guitar and brought a slate of songs to life, leaving no doubt in the minds of audience members that he meant every single word he sang. That sort of emotion is what transcends, what convinces, what lasts.

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