Architecture in Helsinki/The Blow - Live At The Epicentre

Friday was a wonderful night for the RMDS crew as we were lucky enough to see the opening leg of the Architecture in Helsinki tour. Although the evening was dampered slightly by missing band members and some unpolished/missing songs, AIH and The Blow beamed of excitement as they jammed all night long, debuting their new songs.

The Blow
When Khaela Maricich of The Blow got on stage to begin her performance, she was alone. After some small talk with the audiance, the first track began on the speakers and she whisped through the song all by her lonesome. I simply assumed that her partner in crime and drummer, Jona Bechtolt, would be accompanying her shortly. Boy was I wrong and sad when she announced that Jona was doing stuff with his side project Yacht for the night and would not be joining her. Despite my initial dissapointment I forced myself to maintain a positive outlook on the set.

And sweet damn...why did I ever doubt you Ms. Maricich?! If anything, Khaela threw all, if any, of her lonely inhibitions out the window, and danced her way through a sassy set. Her stage presence, similarily to when I saw Lady Sovereign this summer, exhibited the epitome of confidence. Incorporating her own dance moves in the breakdowns of the beats along with story-telling banter between songs gave her set a unique stamp. My only regret was that she didn't play "Parantheses." After talking with her after the show she simply said she wasn't ready to sing that song live. Oh well. She did manage to fit in "Pile of Gold" and "Pardon Me" to the set - both blog favs off of The Blow's upcoming release Paper Television. I look forward to seeing The Blow again soon...as a pair though, and with a pair of parantheses too!

-mp3- The Blow - Pile of Gold

Architecture in Helsinki

Although Architecture in Helsinki is now a critically acclaimed group within the indie community due to their wonderful debut In Case We Die, they might as well have been a brand new band Friday: featuring all new songs and missing two band members.

In retrospect their first song (which was said to be inspired by the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) was a nice foreshadow for the whole set. The new song was a very slow paced, almost ominous, chanted sing-song that perfectly illuminated the potential for their new album. From there on out, it was a pretty new-song-dominated set. However, AIH threw in plenty of their big hit numbers, all of which were enthusiastically recieved by the audience. For the most part, the set kept the crowd dancing the whole time, and there was a tangible sense of giddy excitement in the air, which culminated in AIH coming back on for one of the most reluctant encores I've ever seen. All in all, the set was sloppy but fun. You could tell that AIH was still adjusting to the loss of a few band members, but the new songs were still irresistibly catchy.

I think all of us here at RMDS left the building with smiles on our faces and a newfound anticipation of AIH's next album. So you, you go bring all your happy friends and go catch AIH on their monsterous tour. Go on, get your groove on with the dopest band from da land down undah...

-mp3- Architecture in Helsinki - It'5!

Setlist:

New (20k leagues under the sea?)
New (Little Mermaid?)
It'5!
New (About 2007!?)
The Cemetary
Wishbone
Same Old Innocence (New)
Maybe You Can Owe Me
Lazy (Lazy) (New)
New

-Encore-
Hot to Trot (New)

Thanks for your patience on this review. It was a crazzzzy weekend, capped off with a bunch of hw and such. We got some good posts comin' up though. Look for a mega-movie post from Joe tomorrow!