With most of Providence's student crowd back home in wherever they thought Crocs were a good idea, live music on the alternative end of the spectrum has become scarce. But here's two shows in three days to get excited about
The Mars Volta at Lupo's 1/12 Once notable as the fraction of At the Drive In who went prog, The Mars Volta has blazed its own trail with three LPs of...well what is it? It is a disconcerting collage of avant-garde funk-metal but also a series of insular conceptual works. It takes the scope of Led Zeppelin, adds the angular dissonance of King Crimson, but lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala throws a wrench in any easy comparisons. The sheer frantic dynamics of his bilingual, fever dream wailing makes even Purple Tape era Black Francis seem tame. Their next opus The Bedlam in Goliath is released by Universal on January 29th, so expect a dizzying array of new material and radically restructured cuts from their back catalog. That and an echoey psychedelic tangle of horns, mellotron, and guitars all set to vaporize.
White Williams at The Living Room 1/14 For something a little more restrained, don't miss White Williams as he/they make their Providence debut. After earning his wings as a protege for the acclaim bait that is Greg Gillis of Girl Talk, Joe Williams spent two years recording his debut album, Smoke. Released under the White Williams moniker in November, the album is an addictively brittle electro pop album. The bleeps and blips of the arrangements slowly part to reveal glammy mid-tempo pop songs. "In The Club" boasts seamy yet seductive verses, and some of the best non sequiturs since Mark Bolan was going on about the teeth of hydra and hubcap diamond star halos. With a more conventional band backing him onstage bring out the pop core of his songwriting? Or does White Williams have something up their sleeves? I for one am interested in finding out. Random note: with songwriting in the tradition of Bowie, Ferry, Bolan, and Eno, isn't Williams such a disappointing name?
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