By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Spiritualized and B.R.M.C. might not look or sound alike, but
the music of the two bands made an appropriate but unusual pairing
Sunday at the Mayan.
For one thing, the members of the two groups seemed unreasonably
shy. Aside from a muttered “thank you” once in a while,
B.R.M.C. (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) didn’t say anything to
the audience. Spiritualized didn’t even go that far, only
speaking at the end of the second encore, and then its comments
were restricted to a mere “thank you” as well.
While B.R.M.C.’s sound is darker and more raw than
Spiritualized’s spacey rock, the different styles
complemented each other. The audience, a collection of shaggy and
greasy haired 20-somethings, responded well to both bands.
B.R.M.C.’s excellent, catchy riffs and lost, love-themed
songs got the attention of the crowd, which was sizable for an
opening band. The three man group played songs from both their
self-titled debut album and their follow-up EP.
Their set was almost an hour long ““ more than the usual
opening set but the crowd looked like it enjoyed every minute.
As Spiritualized took the stage Sunday, strobe lights behind the
band flickered into action, producing the effect of something like
a seizure inducing Japanese cartoon. The frenetic light show
returned when the band built up to faster tempos throughout its
set.
A disco ball hung over the stage, the reflected specks swept
across the audience and the walls of the Mayan. During mellower
songs, multicolored rays of light moved across the intricately
carved wood ceiling, as the band played in a shroud of fog.
As the lights washed over the audience, so did the music. Spacey
sounds emanated from the seven band members onstage, with
instruments like the slide guitar and xylophone mixing in the
smoother sounds which often dominated the songs.
While the set started out strong, it dragged in the middle. The
songs began to sound the same and the mellowness lulled the
audience. Things picked up again in the two encores, as the more
aggressive sound shook the audience awake and left them energized
once more.
From the crowd’s perspective, both performances were
hampered by the fact that views of the stage were hard to get. The
Mayan made the unfortunate choice to place risers at the front of
the stage, where the crowd stood at a level above the floor. This
meant that the top row of people obstructed the view of everything
but the performers’ heads.
A few feet behind the risers was a loosely packed crowd that
most likely couldn’t see anything, and the majority of the
audience was pushed back toward the bar area.
The concert experience would have been no doubt enhanced had all
those ticket holders been able to see the bands.
Then again, maybe the bands didn’t want to be seen. Fog
swarmed around the performers and they were often backlit. Shrouded
in low light mystery, and remaining silent most of the time, the
two bands were elusive as individuals, but their collective music
spoke for them.