M83 + School of Seven Bells - Neumos (Seattle, WA; Nov. 25, 2008)

Whenever I try to describe M83’s music to my friends, I end up sounding like a crazed evangelist for failed niche genres: "It’s sort of synthpop post-rock shoegaze, you know? Think ‘My Bloody Valentine,’ but with synthesizers instead of guitars, and less singing. Also they’re French, they never really left the ‘80s, and they have a strange obsession with power ballads. Wait, no, don’t run away! They’re good! I promise!"

Once I’ve regained their trust, I play a few tracks from 2003’s Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts, which cemented my respect for the band, and sit back while the blissed-out fuzz elicits a slow smile from a new fan.

Of course, that album is now five years old, and the "band" has since been whittled down to one man, Anthony Gonzalez (albeit with a backing band on tour). As I stood in front of the box office, arguing my way into the sold-out show at Neumos, I found myself wondering how all of it--the newer material, the solo act, the lush analog soundscapes--could possibly translate to the stage of a mid-sized Seattle nightclub.

The answer, I’m frustrated to report, is… not very well.

But wait, it’s not what you think! In fact, from the moment Gonzalez began tweaking knobs on his acrylic modular mystery box, I felt a familiar wave of anesthesia overtake me, one usually reserved for sleepless nights in dark rooms with headphones. Glancing around, I noticed a few hundred of my neighbors equally entranced, nodding blithely as "Run Into Flowers" induced a collective fugue state.

This peculiar trance maintained its hold for the entire set, dissipating momentarily for the briefest of stage patter before returning to the warm embrace of a retro-futurist utopia. Only during the (inexplicably cowbell-ridden) encore "Couleurs" did the audience regain the use of its limbs, at which point it engaged in the traditional pseudo-pogo.

And yet that’s exactly the problem. The energy level throughout the concert reminded me of a laser show: everyone so lazy and dopamine-drenched they could easily pass for asleep. Perhaps this could work in a larger context, accompanied by ridiculous subwoofer stacks and legions of Zippo-wielding teenagers, but it seemed depressingly out of place in a small venue, where intensity is paramount.
Therefore in my ruthless dictatorship, M83 would lead a binary existence: 1) as godlike arena rockers, playing every summer festival known to man during their endless tour; and 2) as a well-worn cassette in a black-and-yellow Walkman, straining through tinny headphones to keep me awake on an overnight bus ride to nowhere in particular.

As for the opener, School of Seven Bells: Mediocre bands always prove the toughest challenge for a reviewer. Great musicians inspire effortless, flowery prose from their acolytes, and horrible ones provide a welcome outlet for the bilious vitriol we keep hidden in everyday life. Alas, So7B has the misfortune of being merely adequate. With doubled female vocals and a fondness for what I’ll call "quantized rock," comparisons to Ladytron were close at hand. Furthermore, it’s obvious that the record collections of mastermind Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines) and M83’s Gonzalez have considerable overlap, but whereas M83 translates those influences into a relatively heroic performance, So7B’s on-stage effort was decidedly middling. Also, I could never quite figure out exactly what, if anything, the keyboardist was doing. It seemed like she mostly played the same chord for an entire song. Oh well. I still think the debut record, Alpinisms, is quite good.

review to your liking? You'll sweat:

m83 + School of Seven Bells - Middle East Downstairs (Cambridge, MA; Nov. 18, 2008)

Prefuse 73 + School of Seven Bells + Blank Blue - Black Cat (Washington, DC; Nov. 23, 2007)

Blonde Redhead + School of Seven Bells - Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA; Jan. 20, 2008)

School of Seven Bells - “Alpinisms” - Borrow It

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