Battles + Walls - Wonder Ballroom (Portland, OR; Oct. 13, 2011)

On Thursday, from start to finish, the Wonder Ballroom felt like the center of a music experiment. Certain trials succeeded astronomically, while others failed miserably. Success was what I expected from headliners Battles, but the shortcomings of Walls (the openers) were definitely not something I’d hoped for. Because Battles are one of the most avant garde of bands out there today, it was easy to assume there would be a giddy mash-up of rhythms and beats coming off the stage, both from their set and their opener’s. Walls came with all the necessary material to do just that, but it was the way they went about it that almost completely turned me off from them.

Sam Willis and Alessio Natalizia - the London duo that is Walls - kicked off their electronic set excitingly by dialing up samples that mimicked digital frog ribbits and pounding heart thumps. The two worked side by side at a small table. Willis maneuvered a soundboard while Natalizia went back and forth between playing guitar and picking sounds out of a separate machine in front of him. Quickly, they established an ambient and sonic landscape, but one where it was hard to pick up on where the guitar was in the rhythm. I kept trying, but never could locate it - probably because the rest of the sounds were so big.

After a steady, uninterrupted 15 or so minutes of their playing, I began to wonder if they were ever going to take a break. Come to find out, they never would. Walls tore through about 50 solid minutes of music, pausing only for a second, which elicited a smattering of applause. Willis threw his hand in the air at that, as if to say, ‘Oh, no, stop your clapping – we’re far from done,’ and threw himself back into the sampledelica he had been concocting. Now, it can sometimes be a shame when a band takes a break in their set, especially if they’re in the middle of a delectable groove. In the case of Walls, however, and their mostly airy sounds, a break and shift in direction felt almost required. Like a musician once told me: no matter how good you are onstage, even the most loyal of fans will grow irritated and listless if you draw your set on too long. And that’s exactly what Walls was doing. Looking out over the crowd, barely a head was nodding in rhythmic approval, nor was anyone even really dancing. Considering the frenzied popularity of dance music right now, it seems Walls should step up their game to keep themselves in the running. Thankfully they introduced more of a house beat toward the end of the set, and it seemed appreciated by the eager-to-dance crowd which let loose and released any pent up energy held over from the show’s beginnings.

Maybe Walls had provided such a lackluster performance so they could preserve the audience’s vigor for the pending whimsical mania of the Battles set. The headlining trio proceeded to deliver a dynamite show, and promised great things from the onset, particularly when drummer John Stanier stood up during the first song to defiantly smash his 8-foot-high crash cymbal. Amazingly, he wouldn’t have to rise to whack that cymbal again, as he was somehow able to deftly reach it from his low stool, time and again throughout the show. Guitarist Ian Williams was also not to be outdone, multitasking as he played guitar and cowbell by also pecking away at the two sets of keyboards he stood sandwiched between. Not only could he play every instrument terrifically, but he also gave a helluva show by making his guitar dance just as much as he was.

The departure of founding member Tyondai Braxton in 2010 had left the question of who would be providing vocals for the band. This had been answered by the inclusion of numerous guest vocalists like Gary Numan, Matias Aguayo, Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino on Battles’ 2011 release, Glass Drop. Touring without these vocalists would be no problem for Battles, since an image of each singer was projected onto a screen behind them whenever their featured song was played. The imagery coupled fantastically to Battles’ innovative sounds, and became yet another reason to believe in the artistic power of this group.

“Atlas,” one of Battles’ best and most well-known tunes, had featured Braxton’s vocals on previous tours and on the band’s debut album, Mirrored. Rather than replacing him for the live show, they chose to sample what sounded like a woman’s choir for the robotic rock anthem. It worked almost better than the original, and the song played out powerfully as material imagery shimmered on the screen behind the band. Later, “Ice Cream” opened fierce as could be, with the band throwing all they had into the zig-zaggy hit. Shots of chocolate, strawberry & vanilla ice cream mounds waivered on the screen as Battles slowed down the jagged sound bursts. Once the video shifted, the band exploded into a series of rhythmic patterns that now tied to Aguayo singing his multi-language, nonsensical lyrics.

Glass Drop has received criticism for being a bit of a difficult record to enjoy, but none of that was evident as the band performed the new songs. The somewhat annoying tropical sounds that appear in several of the new album’s tracks were seldomly played live – often, anything tropical in nature morphed successfully into more of the stomp-beat Battles are famous for. This added to the futuristic vibe the set gave off, particularly the playing of what guitarist David Konopka referred to as “The Future,” during the encore, even though the song had been titled “Futura” on the album.

As a whole, the night was an experiment that seemed to have a million ingredients to it, all melding together outstandingly. Walls did indeed feel like they need some guidance in their exploration of the dance world, but Battles remained, not surprisingly, at their incomparable best.

DOWNLOAD: Battles - Sweetie & Shag (MP3) or Follow us for more Battles MP3s (Twitter)

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