Show report: Micachu, Chairlift

25Sep09

Looking at Pitchfork’s 500 best songs of 2000-2009 made me realize that, while I listen to a lot of new records, I don’t listen to very many new records by new bands.  So I’m trying to stop in on some of the many free Union Terrace shows by presumable up-and-comers.  Last night I saw Micachu, a young Englishwoman who plays a kind of insistent, dissonant, stop-and-start pop on a modified 3/4-size guitar, and who sneers like Elvis when she sings.  I admired this without really liking it.  Headlining was Chairlift, from Brooklyn via U Colorado.  I liked that the lead singer dresses like a hippie while the guitarist dresses like a late-Soviet arena rocker (see also: Grammar.)  But all in all it seemed there was a lot of atmospheric keyboard, a lot of echo on the drums, a lot of frowny rock face from the singer, and not a lot of songs.  I didn’t stay for the big hit, “Bruises.”

Filed under: madison, music, shows   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: chairlift, micachu, union terrace, wud