She Wants Revenge 5/29/08 (Surge)

She Wants Revenge at H.O.B.

By Michael Wood
For Weekly Surge

Probably the least likely show to be held at the House of Blues on Memorial Day weekend - as bikers whizzed by for Atlantic Beach Bikefest and urban music filled the air - would be the new wave revivalist act She Wants Revenge.

So Sunday, May 17, I headed up to the old H.O.B. to see the show. This tour is sponsored by and run by Nylon, a fashion and pop culture magazine. They had plenty of Nylon merch for sale, as did the bands (some pretty interesting stuff including shorts and panties with the bands' names and logos on them), and all the TVs in the venue were playing "Nylon TV" before the show and in between band sets. Nylon TV is basically the hipsters guide to fashion and music (just like the magazine). The show was playing bands such as The Kills, Tilly and The Wall, and MGMT while electronic music played in between each band's set. And they had a photo booth that you could take your picture in and find your picture online. So as the hip teenagers with their freshly bought shirts from the merch booth and their super tight jeans neared the stage, the show began.

Up first was Switches, from London. From the beginning of the set, Switches started with what seemed to be a sound heavily influenced by Wire and perhaps other late '70s post punk bands. The playful yet artsy sound that started the show quickly developed into less creative, yet catchy pop songs, complete with four-part harmonies. Switches was able to keep it quirky and interesting with some weird synth sounds and a fun electronic hand clap beat that came up in a couple of the songs. They were full of energy and sass. It was quality Brit Rock, but not the resurrection of rock 'n' roll or anything. I was half-way amused.

The next band, from New York, was The Virgins, and the band members looked young enough to actually be virgins. Much like the first band, The Virgins started out on a different vibe than where it landed in the middle of the set. This seemed to be early '80s- influenced power-pop, with some nods to some dance-y soul. There were some interesting things going on musically that lead me to believe it would be better on CD than live. The one thing that I can say that was consistent about these guys were the bass lines, they had really good bass lines. But eventually they ended up just sounding like a Strokes rip-off. And if Nylon is so fashion forward, how did they let the singer get on stage wearing a sleeveless Nike shirt?

Photo by Stefano Giovannini

The co-headliners of the evening were Be Your Own Pet, from Nashville, Tenn. BYOP had gained some notoriety from touring with Sonic Youth. Much like touring with Sonic Youth, this is another tour that just doesn't seem to fit. But the group hit the stage with fury and urgency. After seeing two bands with well-crafted and carefully delivered pop songs, it was nice to see four kids just get up on stage and deliver fast and abrasive punk rock. Singer Jemina had a great onstage persona, or lack thereof, as she was spazzing out and jumping around. It sounded like what I'd imagine Bikini Kill would if still around - and had some melody. BYOP is an excellent live band. They had the crowd dancing spastically like and having a great time.

Finally, California-based She Wants Revenge hit the stage. SWR is only a two-piece band in the studio: Justin Warfield and Adam 12. But live they take a whole band with them. At first I thought that this would take away from their electronic sound but it didn't, being that the drums were half-electronic pads, and a lot of their songs are keyboard driven.

She Wants Revenge takes some dark influences such as Joy Division and Bauhaus and meshes it with '80s new wave and dance influences. They paint images of dance clubs and sex. Sometimes the lyrics are a little cheesy, but live you don't have to pay attention to the words and you can just dance. Warfield and Adam 12 put on an excellent show, playing mostly songs from the group's second record, "This is Forever", and a few from the new EP, "Save Your Soul." They had the crowd dancing and the vibe was really good.

Then some guys decided to start moshing. While singing, Warfield (who sometimes very similar to Placebo's Brian Molko) was distracted when he saw the moshers and could not help but laugh mid-lyric. The meatheads in the mosh pit did not ruin everyone's good time and this was an overall great show. On a side note, all the bands used amps that had Barack Obama's face painted on them with the word "HOPE" underneath his face.

It was nice to see that these were bands were trying to say something while at the same time trying to get the audience on its feet and dancing.