BRIGHTON
Since the advent of the noughties with its MySpace, YouTube and viral marketing, meteoric rises to fame have become common place for many bands, but it’s safe to say even without these developments Sleigh Bells would still have become so popular so quickly. Their debut album ‘Treats’ has accrued positive reviews from harsh music critics as much as fan-boy bloggers and the crowd in Audio tonight is as varied as the many genres evident in Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss’s music.
They open with the first track on the album, ‘Tell ‘Em’, comprised of machine gun beats and distorted guitar riffs from Miller who likes his music very, very loud and it would be uncomfortably abrasive were it not for Alexis’ bubblegum vocals providing the sweet contrast to his dark matter. Initially the levels aren’t right and Alexis is almost inaudible but the sound engineer quickly corrects it and her melodic lyrics flow under the low ceiling and over our hands held high.
‘Infinity Guitars’, their first single to be officially released, is met with the audience members either singing along or head banging to the gritty guitar which Miller cranks up to 11 towards the end of the track to throw the throbbing dancefloor into wild thrashing. And it’s this which sums up Sleigh Bells’ signature sound – the raw unbridled rebelliousness of adolescence, shrill and unforgiving. The sample of Funkadelic’s ‘Can You Get to That’ introduces ‘Rill Rill’, which provides some harmonious respite from the unhinged onslaught of ‘Noise Pop’ and most of the girls in the audience join in with Alexis, who sounds like Katie White from The Ting Tings, if she bought a personality and it came with a free order of attitude.
Unfortunately Sleigh Bells’ set only lasts 30 minutes but this is to be expected as ‘Treats’ is only 30 minutes long. Their performance enraptures the crowd for its entirety and is all sorts of decibel breaking awesome, but it’s also very predictable, rarely veering off the tracklist of their album. What will be really interesting is where they go in 2011 and what new material they produce for their already adoring fanbase.
Audio, Saturday 20th November 2010
Words by Zac Colbert
LONDON
As soon as the Knocks were off, the audience swarmed towards the stage. The show at XOYO in London was sold out. That’s a venue capacity of 800. Derek Miller, in a black hoodie, rushed around plugging things in then went backstage for a couple of pop songs played out to the waiting throng (I think it was George Michael).
When he came back out with frontwoman Alexis Krauss, the crowd went wild. Krauss in a black leather jacket and some funky spotted leggings, walked straight onto the stage to ‘A/B Machines’. The crowd immediately turned to a jumping, screeching mosh pit. But it became a even more rowdy as the band went on into the night. Alexis turned the mic down toward the mosh-pit so everyone could scream the lyrics.
It seemed like a quick set through their hits ‘Infinity Guitars’, ‘Rill-Rill’, ‘A/B Machines’ and ‘Treats’, and they ended sooner than expected. Or did they? As Krauss walked off stage the crowd shouted for more, Derek Miller smoothly walked back on stage strumming his guitar as Krauss runs on singing the last song of the night. At this point the crowd was going mental, one sweat-soaked bunch of fans. To end the night Krauss climbs one of the speakers, and leaps into the crowd, surfing back to the stage and she was off.
XOYO, Sunday 21st November 2010
Words and photos by Andy Shamoon
