scandanavian building

Panther

Glass Candy's Johnny

More Architecture pics here

I have seen two great shows in the last week. First the Tegan and Sara/Northern State show at the House of Blues in Dallas on Friday and then (I guess it wasn't really the weekend) Monday's Architecture in Helsinki show at the Opolis.
Panther, a two man band from Portland, started the evening off with what I think can best be described as what would happen if the Evangelicals decided to become a dance band. While it started a little rocky with a failed attempt to copy one of the prerecorded beat tracks on the duo's only live instrument (drums) they were able to pick things back up and get the sold out crowd to leave their head bopping, arms crossed stance and start dancing.
In fairness some of that dancing was led by Glass Candy's singer, Idano. The dance music continued it's crescendo as electronic , drum loving Glass Candy brought the beats. Idano did a great job of bringing the audience to their fun spot and the songs (including a cover of Kraftwerk's Computer Love), while suffering a bit of the repetition curse inherent in most dance music, where a fantastic set up for Architecture's energy.
Closing the night in fine fashion was Australian septet Architecture in Helsinki. I am so very glad that I saw them perform live. They were really tight and that is a huge feat when considering how many people there are on stage and the complexity of most of their arrangements. It's too bad that they lose most of their live show energy on their recordings. We were also able to hear some of the evidence of their influences, especially the polyrhythmic beats of the Talking Heads. All in all, this was one of the most fun shows we've seen at the Opolis in a while.

mp3 shoebox
Architecture in Helsinki~Heart It Races
Architecture in Helsinki~Do The Whirlwind
Glass Candy~Beatific
Glass Candy~Digital Versicolor