Ever noticed that sometimes it's less satisfying to see a band live than to sit in your living room with their record on your stereo? The live show has got to enhance the songs themselves, and I've found that one of my criteria for really wanting to see a band play live is that their visuals must be good. I ain't talking strings of lights and abstract video backdrops, I'm talking fashion: the kids have got to have style, yo! It's not that every musician needs to dress like a MisShape in order to earn my presence, but if I'm going to stand on a beer-sticky floor and hear sound quality that depends totally on the sobriety of the sound guy, I'd like to at least enjoy looking at the stage. Some bands drop several cool notches once I see them in person (hello, Death Cab), but for other bands, their cool duds enhance the whole experience and leave me an even bigger fan (Rilo Kiley, back in the day! Oh, Jenny Lewis.).
Jenny Lewis: Cute!Back when I listened to both of their bands, thinking of pretty li'l Jenny singing those weird li'l songs made them even better. Thinking of overly old, big-shirted Ben singing his sappy ditties just made them more...creepy.
My new band fashion crush is the bassist of Film School, Lorelei Plotczyk. I was already totally into Film School, a San Fran band with a new record just out, and we walked over to Spaceland the other night to check out their set before our friends the Pity Party played. When Film School came on, my first thought wasn't, "ooh, look at that rad Mustang bass" (that was my second thought), but "ooh, the girl playing it is so cool!" Not only does she look like a French model or something equally envy-inspiring, but she had on the most fabulous black-and-white dress (white top, black high-waisted pencil skirt). Eventually I was doing my best impression of a heartsick fanboy, leaning against a barstool and gazing dreamily at Lorelei, wondering when I'd ever be able to play bass like her, and where'd she get that fantastic dress? Now that I think of it, her dress matched her black-and-white bass, and the other pictures on their MySpace imply that all her dresses do. It's like matching your clothes to your Chanel bag, but so, so much cooler.
Lorelei, Mustang, pretty dress.So, class, today's Lessons from Film School: if you're on stage, chic clothes can make the audience keep its eyes open; dress the very best you can while still being able to perform; and match your outfit to your instrument!
1 comments:
Weird. I just got the newest Film School album today.
And hooray for the new blog!
Post a Comment