Pretty Girls Make Graves

at The Black Cat, 12/8/2005



(these photos are not from this show... just random ones found on flickr, from a show on august 15th, 2005)

Ok, so there's a wee bit of hype surrounding this band (see this review for example). Here's the thing: it's all true. This band is so damn good I don't know what to say. But I'll write a whole bunch of crap anyway...

For starters, they're a super-tight post-punk adrenaline machine. However, their songs are actually melodic, memorable, and interesting. I think guitarist Jay Clark is my new favorite composer of music for electric guitar. All of his parts are more than a little off-balance, his riffs rarely start on a downbeat and always have some surprising rhythmic ideas. He finds the perfect balance between searing dissonance and melodic contour. Most of the guitar parts aren't chords - they're built around linear figures that somehow threaten to splinter the entire song while at the same time tying it all together. Delicious. The rhythm section is excellent. There's such a solid foundation (also with interesting rhythmic ideas) that Clark can take things pretty far out into left field and there's still a strong foundation keeping things propulsive and grounded.

They told us (i.e. the crowd) that they've just finished recording a new record, which is due out in April. The new material seems to continue the trend of their last record: giving up some of the raw power of the first record, making room for a wide range of styles and ideas. I think that approach yielded mixed results on their second album, "The New Romance," but I have high hopes for the new one... One of the new songs was kind of dub-esque, and had verses in 13. Makes a prog-rock geek like me so happy.

Lead singer, Andrea Zollo, sounded great. I think if anything, her singing has improved since the last record. No signs of strain from years of touring... She's an excellent performer and seems so totally comfortable on stage (same goes for the rest of the band). After the show, Cameron said that Zollo is her new favorite person because she's such a rock star - and because her singing was so clear, you could actually understand the lyrics even when things got screamy.

Their live show is great. These folks play. For real. Some of the songs on "The New Romance" sounded especially great with an extra helping of adrenaline. They ended their set with "All Medicated Geniuses" and that song just took off. Left the crowd inevitably hollering for more. Encore included a few more new songs, and then closed the show with the post-punk anthem, "Speakers Push the Air" - which rocked even harder than "All Medicated Geniuses," which I didn't think would be possible. But somehow they did it.

The Double opened... Sadly, this is the second time I've had to sit through their set (they opened for Feist last June). Last time, I thought they were just boring. This time I thought they were really bad and couldn't wait for their set to end.

I missed Tangiers, the first band of the night, because Cameron and I opted for the vegan chocolate cake (with peanut butter icing) and coffee at Food for Thought. Let us take a moment and give praises and thanks for the vegan friendly cafe attached to the Black Cat.

And one last thought about Pretty Girls Make Graves: mad props to a band who can rock this hard and include an accordion.