Prince Rainbow, The Bright Lights, The Sugarplums @ Cake Shop | 8.26.09

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JezebelMusic.com @ Cake Shop
August 26, 2009 | Prince Rainbow, The Bright Lights, The Sugarplums

The Bright Lights, photo by Thomas Wilk

Rachel Shallue, lead singer from Baltimore’s The Sugarplums, has the smallest feet on the East Coast. An attempt to fit more than two lemons inside one of her shoes would be futile. Shallue positioned these tiny shoes parallel to the front of the tiny Cake Shop stage platform while she sang leads and harmonies with her drummer. The Sugarplums’ sound reflected their name, but not in a naïve way; the vocal lines pranced in front of the reverberating guitars and were interesting, poppy, and pleasing to listen to. The Plums were tapped into that K Records jangle sound; they inspired me to get reacquainted with some Saturday Looks Good to Me and Beat Happening, bands with modest guitar hooks, romantic vocals, and stories about being drunk at summer pool parties.

After the Sugarplums concluded, I started to notice that a lot of folks hovering around the stage were wearing bright stripes: Prince Rainbow. I’d secretly wished that they were half Prince and half Rainbow Family Gathering, but I was not disappointed with their instead melancholy plucked guitars and tambourine beats. From Philadelphia, they ferry a shimmering sound into dark bars that is made original with their vocal layerings – a  floaty female voice on top of echoey male voices, all bathed in reverb. Each song seemed a tender dalliance; “45 Days” has a key change between verse and chorus that encourages staying under the covers all day. In any case, these Rainbows are still fashioning their sound and it will be interesting to see how they differentiate themselves from the other twee indie popsters in the future.

The Bright Lights. They differed from Prince Rainbow by about one hundred decibels. The bassist had this toxic dumpster distortion going on, and his cables were failing, causing that disagreeable atomic cat hiss sound. And the bassist and guitarist were both covered in dust, like they had just come from a rugby match during a drought – it made them look really tough, like cavalrymen. Anyway, they had a stalwart bloc of fans out to see them, and The BLs played thundering, yet vaguely surfy guitars. Overall, their sound was familiar, owing likeness to Guided By Voices and early Replacements, yet the Knights had a heavier brawnier edge that I preferred. The last two songs picked up in intensity, with the bass player rising up on his toes, and the prominent longhair in the crowd propellering his arms even harder than he had been before. The dust kicked up and some microphone stands got kicked over. It was good to see this Brooklyn band inspire Wednesday night grunge reverie in Manhattan.

by Thomas Wilk