Review: Gang Gang Dance – Ottobar 8/5/09
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This past Wednesday I rolled over to Ottobar to check out a band i didn’t know much about: Gang Gang Dance. I had heard their 2008 album Saint Dymphna was pretty good (recalling it being on many people’s best of lists) and had that their live show was even better. This was one of those bands i admittedly just hadn’t gotten around to checking out. I can gladly say that that is no longer the case, and can report that they lived up to said reviews and live accolades in spades.
We got there just in time to see opener Hex Message play a short set of pretty good experimental ambient electronic tunes (or should i say tune…as it was hard to delineate when they ended one song and went into another, which actually worked quite well for their sound). This wasn’t ambient electro like M83’s Digital Shades, but had more guitar with various reverb effect pedals as well as a drummer and some weird synth sounds all melded together for a smooth groove. A good way to ease into the night prior to the headliner.
When Gang Gang Dance took the stage, the crowd was pretty full and i was ready to be wooed. And woo they did. Actually at one point singer Liz Bougatsos had us pretty much swooning over her every mysterious note. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. The band consists of a guitarist who seemed to be using a type of synth effect for a lot of the songs, a drummer who was pounding out tribal-esque beats, a keyboard player who generated the back beats and various flourishes of what i’ll call “weird electronic wizardry” and last but not least, Bougatsos sang the vocals, sounding at times like a mix between traditional indian singing and bjork; as well as spent a good amount of the set pounding on bongos with mallets and drum sticks. The result was something that got pretty much everyone in the crowd dancing, yet still intrigued with what exactly was going on that created such a unique sound.
Throughout the set i found myself wondering how i was gonna describe the type of music these guys play, and while it all kind of sounds weird and experimental, it also still has an underlying beat and melody that keeps the feet moving and ears pleasantly happy. I hate to use this cliche explanation, but you really have to see it for yourself to truly get the full experience (although in album form, they did a pretty good job of reproducing that vibe).
They played for about an hour and fifteen minutes, an impressive amount of time in this day and age of the standard 45 minute sets, and seemed to be genuinely having a great time. Bougatsos was seen numerous times smiling and made me jealous i wasn’t the one on stage wailing away on those two bongos as if life itself depended on it. After the set I ran into drummer Jesse Lee and expressed to him just how much we enjoyed it, and he seemed to be truly thankful that their music was connecting with people. When he told us that their next stop was Columbus, i told him i hope my hometown state would appreciate it as much as the baltimore crowd did, and headed home for the night…happy to say that I have finally experienced Gang Gang Dance, and will surely not miss the boat on them come next album/tour.
Gang Gang Dance – House Jam (MP3)
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[...] i reviewed Gang Gang Dance’s show at ottobar a month back, i totally forgot that local show [...]
on September 18th, 2009 at 3:24 pm