By Greggory Moore
1. “These guys fucking rule,” gushed an attendee of the Leviathan Bros. as she left their record-release show at {open}. Then she stopped on her way out and retraced her path a couple of steps to emphasize her point to co-owner Sé Reed: “These guys fuck-ing rule!”
And it certainly would be hard to deny that the Leviathan Bros. are very good at what they do—which is employing piano-sounding keyboard and drums to produce jazzy space-age lounge covers (or mostly covers, anyway—I’m not sure) of material ranging from David Bowie’s Life On Mars?” to The Beatles’ “The Inner Light” (which I liked better than the original, surprisingly) to the Sex and the City theme (which I liked better than the original, not surprisingly). Some ’50s noir film played behind the duet during their set, which wasn’t nearly as charming as their extremely deadpan stage banter. Check them out at www.theleviathanbrothers.com.
2. A recent Tuesday night at {open} opened with a set by And the Furies Say. The sound was too big for the space, but that didn’t stop one from appreciating the sextet’s tightness. Their basic two-guitar/bass/drums foundation (although sometimes one of the guitarists played five-string bass) was layered with cello and French horn (!), resulting in something that was punchy fusion meets Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Take a listen: myspace.com/andthefuriessay.
Later, duo Chris Schlarb (guitar) and C.J. Boyd (bass, harmonica) played long and delicately loping pieces with great control and rapport, the kind of music you can float on. myspace.com/cjboyd will fill you in on what I can’t fill you in on in words.
3. A day later Fingerprints had an in-store event featuring Tegan and Sara. This was my first exposure to them (I was there doing a Gazettes story on Fingerprints, which just celebrated its 15th anniversary), and they’re not half-bad—and quite good at doing what they do, which is something along the lines of how Siouxsie and the Banshees might have sounded had they been more poppy and driving and sans the dark influences that produced bands like The Cure. The eponymous sisters played acoustic guitars (though one was at times on glockenspiel) and were joined onstage by another acoustic guitarist and a bassist playing one of those basses that are like electric basses but are acoustic (y’know?). The treat was the intimacy and the energy that generated—a perfect fit for their very charming sisterly banter. Anyone there just for the music most certainly would have been annoyed at how much the two talked—the whole thing was more of a lounge show than a mini-concert, really—but I’m guessing most of these fans are equally fans of Tegan and Sara’s personalities.
4. If you live in or near Long Beach, you have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to opportunities to take in a wide array of excellent live music being played in venues so small that you could literally reach out and touch the performers (though generally you really ought not to do that). So if you like that sort of thing, seek it out—because it’s always here.