THE VON BONDIES @ Les Saints

By Kelly Kay - Cut Your Hair and Get a Job - 02/15/2009

The last time I saw The Von Bondies, I had my hair cut like a Hanson brother and Miley Cyrus was merely annoying, not an alleged racist. Ah yes, The Von Bondies show on January 17th at Café Campus really solidified my thinking that 2008 would kick some serious ass; the band had an incredible amount of energy and executed a flawless set that didn’t lack soul, inspiring this young lady to dance like a maniac all through the night. That being the case, my expectations were rather high for the band when heading out to see them at Les Saints on February 15 of 2009, just over a year after they blew my mind in the plateau. Wrongfully assuming that ‘doors at 8' meant ‘starts around 10', I arrived around 9 o’clock only to find out I had missed the opener, Nico Vega, by a couple of minutes. This was a total disappointment as I was seriously fiending for some new music. Did the rest of the evening make up for it? Read on to find out!

The Von Bondies kicked off their set with a lackluster version of “Been Swank” (being “hip to the jive” I suppose I should know what that means, but don’t), off their 2004 hit record Pawn Shoppe Heart. Taking the casual-cool, shoegaze vibe way too far for a band that doesn’t fit into that genre of music, the band was simply unable to engage the audience. After mechanically churning out that familiar tune, they decided to spring a song off their new album Love, Hate and Then There’s You on the audience, a move that could end disastrously for any band if said album doesn’t pack the punch of their earlier work.

This nameless new song wasn’t bad, but wasn’t all that great, nor did it really sound like the Von Bondies- it kind of sounded like the Killers circa Hot Fuss. Now I’m all for artistic evolution, but the Von Bondie’s leap in the dance-pop direction sounded nothing but diluted and a little washed-up. Jason Stollsteimer’s voice lacked the dirty, Dee-troit growl we rock and roll junkies fell in love with early in the millennium and the instrumentation lacked any passion. The one saving grace in this relatively bland tune was a great, loud and crazy instrumental breakdown towards the end that put some colour in the Von Bondies’ cheeks and made them come bursting to life, if only for a few minutes.

This energy was carried on into “Going Down” off their first album, Lack of Communication. I suddenly remembered why I dug the Von Bondies; this tune was packed with enough bluesy, nu-garage swagger to get the crowd feeling a whole lotta sexy, which was an appropriate atmosphere for the day after Valentines.

Due to my limited space to complete the rest of this review, I’ll sum up some highlights and lowlights of the show, most likely concluding with a short summary you can reference if you don’t want to read this whole thing.

HIGHLIGHTS:

1) Not That Social: “I’m not that social, just a good drinker.” Words we can all relate to! I’ll admit, the female vocals were a little shaky, but overall one of the finest tunes of the evening.

2) Pawn Shoppe Heart: Apparently about J.S.’s first wife. A very captivating and gritty performance by the whole band. Thumbs up.

3) No Regrets: They turned up their amps to 11 and the crowd actually moved around a little without having to be prompted by the band to do so. I call that successful.

4) Lowlight: Another nameless new song about dancing to forget your troubles and blah blah blah. Ironically, the band had to tell people in advance to dance and continued to do so numerous times when the crowd refused.

5) Lowlight: The band plays C’mon C’mon as an encore. While it was played well and the crowd went crazy, my sad little heart tells me this will most likely be the Von Bondies’ last tour. If they plan on taking their music in the direction of Love, Hate... they should never play this song again.

To summarize, this show was somehow confusing. Half the time I was resisting the urge to rip up my notes and start dancing. The other half of the show made me want to go home because I felt so bad about the audiences’ poor reception of the V.B’s new material, as well as the bands exhausted and uninterested demeanour. Maybe the Von Bondies should take another 5 year hiatus to hang out and think about where this whole music thing is going. I give this show a 6/10.

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