Menomena

The Bon Savants

The Parson Red Heads

Echo - March 10, 2007

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

Menomena have outgrown the Echo—which was much to the chagrin of the line of ticketless hipsters stretched outside the club, talking on their cell phones and looking mighty distressed.  Inside, spirits were considerably higher, and were helped early on by The Parson Red Heads, who crammed all 127 of their sharp-dressed members on stage and enthusiastically saluted some of the best country-minded performers to have blown through the canyons of their native L.A. (Gram Parsons & Co., naturally).  Far from being a tired retro act, though, the Red Heads have good songs of their own, and the kick-up-your-heels vibe obviously translates well to stage; it was particularly effective during a jubilant tambourine-off toward the close of the set.  They’ve been gigging around town quite a bit, and it’s easy to see why they’d be a hot commodity as an opener.  Even if they don’t catch on nationally for whatever reason, they’re the sort of band that should cement themselves as an L.A. favorite with time and polish.  But not too much polish!

The Bon Savants came next, and, despite some snappy post-rock hooks, were mostly memorable for their affected stage demeanor and their terrible cover of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – seriously, can’t the RIAA whip up some rule requiring bands to apply for a license or something before they can play songs like that in public?

The capacity crowd milled around during an unfortunately long set change, starting to get a little antsy, and then was quickly made friendly again by an innovative and enthusiastic set from Menomena.  As mentioned in an interview earlier this year on The Red Alert, the trio was faced with a daunting challenge in working Friend and Foe into its live form.  They’ve had some time with it now, and it’s coalesced nicely, and in a way that fits comfortably into a set list alongside selections from I Am The Fun Blame Monster.  The precision and density of Menomena’s material means that they are a slightly more awesome band on record than in person—but damned if they didn’t try to make do, with Brent Knopf and Justin Harris rotating on instruments (sometimes multitasking with more than one).  Whenever possible, they go for the real thing rather than canned effect; Harris, guitar strapped around his shoulder, wailed his saxophone parts while Knopf did the mad scientist thing behind the boards.  Next time around, they’ll surely be playing a bigger venue, so it was a treat to catch them in (relatively) close quarters this time around.