Ready for War? Ready for Love!
Diogo Miguel Geraldes falls in love with Warpaint at Scala
I knew these girls were good. I knew they were hyped. I knew they could put on a great live performance. But still, I wasn’t expecting a sold out Scala only two days after they released their first album!
2:54 opened the night with their “pre-pubescent Garbage”-like songs led by a extremely foxy lead singer. Friction followed with a very tight Fool’s Gold-meets-Mystery Jets happy set, highly dominated by the high pitched, well played and placed, crisply joyful, Maghreb inspired guitar notes. Before leaving the stage, Friction mentioned that everybody that came to see Warpaint was “in for a treat”. And oh boy, were they right! After a (perhaps too long) sound check, the “angel-like choir” got up on stage and started delivering their “minimal-gap-filling harmony”. The simultaneously contrasting, yet completing vocals and guitars of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman impressed on me a yin-yan’esque feeling of the performance. Led by Stella Mozgawa and followed by the exquisite Jenny Lee Lindberg’s bass lines, the unexpected melody breaks evidenced how great musicians they all are.
Everyone in the King’s Cross venue was hypnotised with the flawless but still human performance. Their unique style of inserting songs into songs and silence into music is what makes their album a definite contester to any Top Albums of 2010 list. As highlights, I would like to pick “Beetles” for its never-ending epicness, “Composure” and “Set Your Arms Down” because they capture Warpaint’s essence and geniality and, obviously, the almost a-capella, involving, vocal dominated four-way that was “Billie Holiday”, the last song in their encore. As a very frequent concert-goer, I’ve seen many great established acts this year. LCD Soundsystem, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, Beirut, The Antlers, Broken Social Scene or The National have all impressed me beyond belief for their live performances, technique and brilliance. However, I wasn’t expecting a similar reaction to this new, slightly inexperienced LA band. I could go on and deliver an endless list of adjectives of the likes of ‘magnificent’ or ‘perfect’, but I won’t. I was there, it’s all that matters. They are going to be huuuuge and stay for a while, so book yourself tickets for their next concerts. Oh, and I’m in love. With all of them.
