Gang Gang Dance/Ariel Pink show last week was fantastic! I was extremely hesitant; Ariel, despite being probably my favorite song writer of these times, has a near unanimous poor reputation as a live act. He really pulled things together this time, with what appears to be a stable lineup of 2 guitarists (including Vudi from American Music Club, of all people), keyboardist, drummer (on Simmons style electronic kit), and I believe they traded off on bass duties but I honestly can't remember... they could have had a bass player... (I WAS drunk and stoned enough to spend $60 on 3 Ariel CD-Rs with different artwork because I thought they all had different tracks..) The band was a little sloppy and flubbed a few times (the sound was pretty inconsistant). But I can only see things going up from here.

Gang Gang Dance, I hated what I heard from them before, but they were just magical.. Haven't gotten around to investigating their earlier stuff, but have they always had this indipop/middle east pop thing going on? Less adventurous bits of their set just sounded like generic post-punk revival/blonde redhead blandness (I assume this is the stuff I heard before?). Best moments had thickets of tribal drums alternating with very funky eastern-sounding rnb/hiphop digital beats. Flirted between Noise Mode and Party Mode and straight up Bliss Mode with major grace. Vocals were splendid and catchy as well, and contained a level of shriekiness I could stand.

OPENER was this headbanging electric guitarist playing an entire set of fast n complex distorted metal riffs UNACCOMPANIED!