The XX Live

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Kurt and I went to see the latest buzz band from England, The xx. They played at a new club in East Atlanta called Bar 529. We bought tickets several months ago for $8 and were surprised that it was so cheap for a band that has received pretty much glowing reviews across the board. Neither of us had been to this club before and had no preconceived ideas about what it would be like, but assumed that it would be a small club with a capacity of about 250-500 people. Well, upon entering, it was apparent we had grossly misinterpreted what this experience would be like. Instead of a small club, we realized we were in a smurf club. The club, if you could call it that, was smaller than my loft, which is only 954 square feet. I felt like were were going to see this band in my living room.

Once we got over our initial shock about the size of the club we decided to just go with it and enjoy some good music. The show was supposed to start at 9, but as most small club shows are, the opening bands (and there were two of them) did not even take the stage until after 10, so I knew it was going to be a very long night. And to make matters worse, the club was filled with a vast array of Hipster Douches.

To define this, we look to Urbandictionary.com:

n. A uniquely annoying breed of hipster that is particularly skilled at ruining culture. Found in cool cities like Austin, the hipster douche takes self-irony and uselessness to a whole new level. Often seen wearing a flip brim cap and plaid, the hipster douche may pass judgment on (or ignore) anything under the sun with absolutely no knowledge of it. One may not, however, criticize him.

These were all wearing the latest Hipster Douche uniform: knitted skull cap, thick horn rimmed glasses, hipster t-shirt, hoodie, skinny jeans, and Chuck Taylor All-Stars. They all stood around drinking their PBRs and looking distant and bored. They were insufferable. I wished the club had been bigger so as to have been able to ignore them. Not happening this time.

The first band was a local trio called Living Rooms. They were three Hipster Douches standing in front of an array of sampler pads, playing a pretty derivative melange of electronic music. It was nothing that couldn't be found on an Animal Collective or Atlas Sound cd. I was pretty unimpressed by them. The vocals tended to be moaned monosyllabic words that really didn't convey anything concrete. They played a very long set and I was about over it. Thankfully it ended.

The second act was Jon Hopkins, an IDM producer from England, who has produced acts as big as Coldplay, Massive Attack, Brian Eno, and Herbie Hancock. He creates nice downtempo beats with a slight dissonance, however, this was nothing that could not be heard on releases from Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Chris Clark. He was behind a large bank of sampler pads and other electronic manipulation devices. It look interesting, but you could tell it was more prerecorded from his laptop than him actually creating the music live. After the second song it started to get repetitive, and thus boring.

Finally, The xx came on at 12:45am. I have not been out to a show that late in a long time. I am far from old, but I was definitely wishing I was snug in my warm bed. But this is one of my favorite new bands and I was determined to stay up and see them. I knew they couldn't play that long since they only have one album out.

They are now down to a trio and I was interested in seeing how they translated their music without their rhythm guitarist and keyboardist. I was glad to say that she was really not missed. There were a few places where you could hear the missing guitar parts, but other than that the sound was impeccable. And the percussionist picked up the missing keyboard parts and sounded amazing.

It was great to see them in such an intimate setting. There was almost no separation between band and audience, and it truly felt like you were seeing a band in your own home. Here are several clips posted on Youtube from the show, which will give you a good idea of what we witnessed.









After the less than spectacular opening bands, The xx put on a very good show playing every song off the cd along with a handful of covers. They do not have a dynamic live show, but in its stead we were given a show full of impeccable musicianship and amazing rapport. There was a sense of danger and lurking sexual tension between the two singers which added to the performance. They are supposed to come back to Atlanta next year with the Swedish band JJ, and will play the much larger venue, The Earl. I am considering going to see them in a better venue. And they are also slated to play Coachella which I am going to with Kurt, Dan, and Mikey. I can only see them getting bigger over time, and I can say in my best Hipster Doucheness that I saw them in a tiny club with 50 people back in the day.