The Raveonettes + Tamaryn @ La Tulipe

Last Friday night saw The Raveonettes return to the stage at La Tulipe, celebrating the release of their new album Raven in the Grave. Tamaryn opened with dripping, reverb-infused goth tunes, playing to a mighty crowd of twenty-something music nerds. By the time The Raveonettes took to the stage, the audience was ripe with anticipation.

The Raveonettes started out with some tracks from their new album. Their new sound followed Tamaryn’s gothic cue quite well. The new tracks are different from everything they’ve done before- less indie, more noise. The lead singers, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, were the quintessential indie poster kids with blunt bob haircuts and sweaty white t-shirts. They were backed by a solid drum duo that delineated the stage into a kind of strange mirror image of itself. The drummers, for the most part, played the exact same riffs on slightly differing kits. The sound was beefy and, just like Tamaryn, dripping with reverb. They played for about an hour and a half, but unfortunately, it seemed the audience only warmed up towards the end of the set. By the end, with the Raveonettes satisfying audience appetites with some of their better-known hits, the kids on the floor were desperate for an encore.

I would definitely recommend The Raveonettes’ new album based on seeing their live renditions of new tunes. I have to admit that I find their early recordings a little too poppy for my tastes, but their new songs seem to embrace a noisier, more experimental aesthetic that could be an interesting departure for them. They played with a sound reminiscent of spaghetti Westerns – sexy and drawling. This approach didn’t evoke any dancing from the crowd, though, so they increased the BPM as the night progressed, slowly enticing the audience into waking up a little more. My only complaint would be that they had long-ish breaks between each song, and tended to wait until the applause died out before starting the next song. This lent a bit of an awkward feel to the flow of the whole show. Even so, by the end, things were flowing well, people were moving, and the hits kept coming.

Check out The Raveonettes’ new album, Raven in the Grave, coming out April 5. It sounds like a gorgeous mix between their older surf rock style and a new fuzzed-out sound that makes for some great booty-shakin’ beats.

-Danielle J hosts Runny Noise on Thursday from 10pm-12am