Love Is All, Vivian Girls, Nodzzz
December 20th at Bottom of the Hill

After great opening sets by Vivian Girls and Nodzzz, the Swedish fivesome of Love Is All somehow managed to fit themselves on Bottom of the Hill’s tiny stage. Ultimately, however, neither their energy nor their membership could be contained by that space: Josephine Olausson, the group’s lead singer, and keyboardist/saxophonist James Ausfahrt stood at stage’s edge in encouragement of the crowd’s excited dancing, and the latter eventually found his way into the crowd with that saxophone of his. They opened with “Wishing Well”, whose keyboard line is uncomfortably close to that of the Clean’s “Tally Ho!”, but the remainder of the set duly showcased their novel hooks and astounding energy. Love Is All are at their best when they teeter on being unhinged, as on “Give It Back”, whose entwined sax-and-guitar riff produces an irresistible pulse, and older track “Talk Talk Talk Talk”, whose “One more time! One more time!” refrain summons that Daft Punk-like effect of uninhibited sing-a-long-ing throughout the venue. One can’t help but selfishly wish they’d keep playing intimate spaces like this, where the collective energy can course through every inch of one’s body, but Love Is All really ought to be a whole lot more popular than they appear to be—this is everything that dance-punk wanted so badly to be and wasn’t! – Michael Harkin

Watch: Love Is All [at youtube.com]

Or, the Whale, the Silent Comedy, Harbours
November 21st at Café Du Nord

The San Francisco music scene came out in droves on a Friday night to support some of the best local bands known about town right now. Though headliner Or, the Whale didn’t take the stage until well past 11pm, the show was sold out by 9:30pm, due in large part to the excellent sounds of the two preceding bands, the Harbours and the Silent Comedy. The Harbours celebrated the limited release of their newest record, No Souvenirs, and their set list was comprised of this new material—reflective, rambling Americana along the lines of Neil Young and Wilco, headed by singer-guitarist Miguel Zelaya, whose compositions range from measured and meandering to roots rockin’ and buoyant, the kind of stuff you can shake a leg to. Next up was the vaudevillian Silent Comedy, a ragtag set of energy-packed sounds driven by nearly manic, country-rocker types, which culminated in a spiritual medley ending with “When the Saints Go Marching In” with a few members of Or, the Whale joining in on the ruckus.

By the time Or, the Whale got up there, the venue was overflowing with a legion of local fans; the large ensemble group, with a few different vocalists, projects the sense that they are having a great and easy time, feeding off four-part harmonies and countrified arrangements dusted with banjo twang and exuberant plucking guitar. It’s rootsy country-rock, and though it became redundant by the end of their set, they’re clearly a solid act that would have equal presence by a campfire, house party, or, as in this case, a sweating hot venue on a beer-fueled Friday night. There aren’t too many bands who can boast that kind of versatility, which seems to be one of the reasons they’ve become mainstays in SF’s inundated indie rock community. – Angela Zimmerman

Listen: The Harbours [at myspace.com]

Of Montreal
November 21st at the Grand Ballroom

When they were touring two years ago, Of Montreal’s glittery glam-pop was accompanied by, say, three or four onstage costume changes. Audiences clearly took to their bejeweled exuberance then, but as became clear at their SF gig in promotion of Skeletal Lamping, the spectacle has been amped up to heights unimaginable a few years ago. The Grand is a huge space, and Of Montreal needed every inch of it for the stage show this time out. There was a three-tiered stage: On the two uppermost platforms sat the group’s two drummers; keyboardist Dottie Alexander was positioned on the shorter platform (itself quite tall), and the rest of the band played on the stage surface itself, which featured a rotating central platform that doubled as a dressing room/changing area and as a miniature stage-within-the-stage. God knows how many people they had to enlist to put this show on—actors, stage directors, and a tech and lighting crew for starters—but, as promised in their tour promotion, they went through about 30 costume and set changes within the hour and 45 minutes they played (granted, frontman Kevin Barnes was stripped down to underwear for much of the time). We were treated to various absurd Barnes stage entrances, the first time by way of a princely, shoulder-borne carriage held by gold-masked Montrealeteers, and later aloft in a flower-adorned coffin as he was covered in mummy-like bandages. In the evening’s most dramatic chapter, there was a staged hanging, complete with a gallows and noose. Even with the rope about his neck, Barnes happily sang all the while, prancing about the stage—he seems born to do this sort of thing. It was all a bit much, but you have to give them credit for pushing the envelope for absurdity: Even the Flaming Lips don’t go this crazy! As for the music, the Skeletal Lamping songs didn’t translate super effectively live due to their hyper-meandering nature, but the group was certainly greeted with big cheers for the sprightly, danceable tracks they played from their last two albums (Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and The Sunlandic Twins), such as “So Begins Our Alabee” and “Gronlandic Edit.” The latter tune was featured in the encore, along with a surprise closing cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, which Barnes and co. sang with joyous aplomb. – MH

Watch: Of Montreal [at youtube.com]