Le Loup at Chop Suey

November 4, 2009

Le Loup ::: Photo by Josh Lovseth

Since we’ve gotten to the point where we’re hitting up 3-4 shows weekly, as of late we’ve become habitually late with our show arrivals. The logic is that the advertised showtime is never correct, so generally adding a solid 30 minutes to catch at least some of the opener is safe. Except somehow it never seems to work out that way.

A few Friday’s past at Chop Suey we showed up accordingly, and the opener had yet to even start. It turned out to be a good thing since People Eating People is the best new thing I’ve heard in a bit. People Eating People is Nouela Johnston, her emotive vocals and her electric piano, singing songs about trying to figure things out in a world that doesn’t run in straight lines. Johnston has a very definite first person writing perspective and she sings as though the songs were written just yesterday.

MP3: People Eating People - All The Hospitals from People Eating People out November 3rd, courtesy of the Control Group

We were gunning to arrive just as Nurses was starting, as we’ve been following their rise from the Portland house show scene into a legit touring band on a label. This Chop Suey bill found them looking rightfully a bit tired at the end of literally two straight months of touring and two circuits of North America, supporting first Throw Me The Statue, and then Le Loup. Even with their own beds a mere three hours away, for their first proper club set in Seattle the Portland threesome pulled through and produced the expected fusion of unusual samples, modified vocals, and organic drumming that we’ve been so captivated by these last few months. If anything singer Aaron Chapman’s presence has strengthened over the course of those months and still continues to defy comparison; he’s just not a conventional voice. That’s definitely a part of why I like Nurses so much.

Based on their most recent recording Family, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get from DC’s Le Loup, signed to local label Hardly Art. Family sometimes feels like the intersection of every “it” indie band from the past two years, and yet for the most part it’s not a bad thing (no matter my feelings on Animal Collective). Live they feel much more like a jam band than expected, the plaintive singing and pseudo-tribal drumming evoking a mass of dancing pagans with their bare feat pounding the ground in endless celebration and feasting around a towering bonfire. Though they’ve got two guitarists, it’s most certainly the drums and sweeping vocals that really defined the sound what set’s Le Loup apart. So much so I was lamenting that there weren’t more moments where they sing rounds or in chorus.

People Eating People is set to play the Rendevous Jewelbox Theater November 12th with Flexions, Julianna Barwick and Bill Horist, and the Crocodile December 10th with Zee Avi. We’re obviously going to try to show up earlier from now on. We just needed a reminder that the best way to get know and love new bands is to check out the openers of the bands you already love.