Carrie Brownstein has her hands full. She’s one of the stars of the IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia, a job that has spawned a Facebook movement to draft her to host SNL. In addition to this, she’s also responsible for keeping incendiary guitar work alive as a part of Wild Flag. The quartet played a blazing set Friday night at the Highdive which, although short, managed to renew my faith in the possibilities of guitar rock and set my ears to ringing for days. So while I hope I do get to see Brownstein on Saturday Night Live sometime, I’m glad she’s still making music too.
Openers Yellow Fever, a guitar and drum duo from Texas, played a quick set that recalled Talking Heads, Spoon, and 60’s surf rock.
Wild Flag then quickly took to the stage and proceeded to blow the doors off the building. They played mostly songs from their self-titled album that came out earlier this year. Highlights included “Romance,” “Glass Tambourine,” and “Future Crimes.” The group also played two new songs. The first of these was an alt-countryish barn-burner with a shout-along chorus that Brownstein quipped was written during the sound check. The second, an ethereal number sung by the Mary Timony, the group’s other singer, sounded like the kind of thing a ghost would keep on his iPod. For their encore, the group covered the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden” with TImony on lead vocals. Dedicated to an audience member who had just announced it was her birthday, the cover version was a nice way to end the show.
The women in Wild Flag have an incredible onstage chemistry that really has to be experienced to be believed. All of the songs were recognizable but contained improvisational passages where Timony and Brownstein traded guitar licks that would have made Jim and William Reid envious. Rebecca Cole plays the keyboards like she’s operating a blast furnace and Janet Weiss is the best drummer in any band right now, hands down. In fact, my only problem with the group was that it was hard to see Weiss at the back of the stage. I think, though, that if she were any closer the entire room would have exploded. As it was, Timony and Brownstein put on quite a show up front. The two are a perfect combination: Brownstein is a bundle of feisty energy, dancing and kicking like a rockstar (or at the very least like Bob Pollard) while Timony slides gracefully around the stage, all poise. The same tension is reflected in their songs with Brownstein’s feeling more nervy and rocking while Timony’s are more haunting and restrained. The result is a brilliant mixture that’s reflected in the high energy of their live show.
Given the relative paucity of material that the group has to draw from, they only played for a little over an hour before leaving the stage. While some might have been disappointed at the brevity of their set, the energy and enthusiasm of the group never flagged and there was never a dull moment. They played in a frenzy that swept the audience along on a wave of good vibes. At one point, Brownstein joked that the band had seen some “inspirational outfits” the night before at Cowboy Monkey and they’d be taking the opportunity to debut their own new wardrobe later in their tour. If that’s true, everyone who sees them post-Champaign is in for two treats.
Photo by Lisa Bralts-Kelly