By Anthony Bromberg
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Friday night at Royce Hall, a colorful, spectacular light show
was one of the few connecting elements between the music acts that
were there to perform for the All Tomorrow’s Parties
festival.
The acts included a giant band from the ’70s CBGB scene, the
frontman of grunge’s weakest successful act, a collective of
quirky musicians, a nervous female singer-songwriter and the new
act from the ’90s seminal indie-rock band Pavement’s
leader.
Bringing all of these acts together was an interesting concept
that provided a fun if schizophrenic night for the audience. The
show worked best as an introduction to a variety of acts who may
not be the easiest to discover through mainstream avenues.
Unfortunately, Royce Hall was not the best venue that most of these
acts could have been seen in. The inventive lighting added an
element of creativity to the atmosphere and was especially
effective for the collective noisemaking group that included Sonic
Youth member Kim Gordon. As a venue for the entire show, though,
Royce was too stodgy and not intimate enough a place in which to
ideally see most of these acts. The crowd was receptive to the
music nonetheless, and some members, not put off by the formal tone
of the building, managed to add the aroma of a certain leaf that is
almost always associated with rock concerts.
The least interesting act of the night was easily Eddie Vedder.
As the most popular mainstream name on the bill he was a crowd
favorite, but his performance was lackluster. He played a ukelele
for most of the set, bringing out an electric guitar on only a
couple of tracks. He didn’t play any Pearl Jam hits, or what
would have seemed the obvious choice for a solo set – his cover of
the Beatles’ classic "You’ve Got to Hide Your Love
Away." He did sing well though, through his uninspired lyrics, and
provided a topic of conversation coming onto the stage with an
atrocious mohawk.
The night’s other traditional singer-songwriter, Cat
Power, was much more successful in creating a connection between
her music and the audience. Her soft, passionate vocals, were only
enhanced by the fact that she acted endearingly nervous, often
clearing her throat midway through a song and mumbling half to
herself and half to the audience.
Seventies band Television was hit and miss, the audience going
crazy whenever they played a song off their landmark album,
"Marquee Moon," the highlight of the set being the title track,
which closed the set. They only played two songs from it, however,
and their set was bogged down by long periods of tuning between
what seemed like every song.
The combination of Ikue Mori, Kim Gordon, Jim O’Rourke and
DJ Olive made use of Royce’s stage flawlessly. Their
noisescape included a little turntable magic, Mori programming a
laptop, and O’Rourke and Gordon doing unbelievable things
with their bass and guitar respectively. They played two extended
songs for their entire set, but with the dynamic sounds they evoked
from their instruments managed to keep the jams
attention-grabbing.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks headlined the night, but a lot of
the audience strangely filed out after Television’s set.
Malkmus didn’t seem to mind though, giving the best
traditional rock show set of the night. Playing largely new songs,
with a few selections off his 2001 self-titled album, Malkmus was
funny, energetic, and sounded really good. Impressive for a set
that didn’t get started till around midnight. Closing out the
night, the Jicks left the audience ready for the next night’s
festivities.