Earlimart, moools, toddle

February 22nd, Shibuya O-Nest


toddle. The first time I saw toddle last fall they didn't make a big impression on me (other than having Neutral Milk Hotel as the opening song), and I actually left in the middle of their set. This time I realized that the noisy guitar parts of their music are actually quite good. The flat vocals however sound incredible uninspired. There's almost no variation, and the monotone, anonymous vocals became a complete turn-off for me. The two girls on vocals are also pretty boring to watch on stage. The bassist however was crazy, jumping all over the place, rocking out and not to mention looking like he was having fun on stage. Screw indie estethics, a good stage show makes a lot of difference. This guy was more into it than the entire band and the audience combined, and that made me have fun to.


toddle's drummer tonight was also the drummer for the next band moools. I've also seen moools once before about a year ago. They've been playing a while if I'm not mistaken, and they certainly seem like routined, skilled musicians. As with toddle I actually left halfway through moools' set last time, but this time I enjoyed it all the way through. They play indierock, which kind of reminds me of the Pixies. Also, the vocalist told funny stories between the songs, and the bassist's playing really impressed me.


Earlimart have been around for a while, but I've only recently started listening to them. This was their first tour to Japan, and they seemed super excited to be here. They had decorated their instruments with pretty lights too. I got their latest album "Hymn and Her", and I think it's quite good. Sort of quiet and nice indiepop. Live however, they seemed more interested in trying to make a lot of guitar noise, which, personally, I think didn't suit them much. I prefer their softer songs, and I enjoyed when they played songs like "Face Down In the Right Town". During one of the last songs the vocalist attempted to make the crowd wave their hands over their head from side to side. That was so out of place. It was a fairly good concert, but I guess I expected a bit more from them - or less depending on how you see it (right back to the indie estethics).


www.myspace.com/toddleto
www.myspace.com/moools
www.myspace.com/earlimart