Mines! Light Heavyweight Stars' Campbell entertains the audience.

I arrived at the club at 9:30 sharp to ensure that I didn’t miss a minute of Mines’ sure-to-be spine-tingling set; as usual, my punctuality backfired, and the band wasn’t set to start up until 10:00. So, I spent some quality time with The Stranger (Seattle’s love-it-or-hate-it weekly "alternative" culture/news/music/arts rag) before my girlfriend arrived to pleasantly distract me. While perusing the Stranger, I happened upon the "recommended live shows" section. Jeff De Roche Stranger music editor, had this to say about headliners Stars: "Stars write sophisticated (read: sterile) Europop (read: vapid ex-New Yorkers making minimalist dance-pop with some French lady whispering occasionally) over which exhausted music critics nationwide have gone positively apeshit." Combined with the fact that I’d only heard one song by Stars (which didn’t exactly blow me away), De Roche’s commentary didn’t exactly get my blood moving with respect to the show I was about to see. However, I reminded myself that The Stranger’s musical commentary (and De Roche’s, in particular) is more often than not completely full of shit, so I decided to shelve any preconceived negative thoughts and re-evaluate them once the band came on. Turns out that, as usual, De Roche was full of shit.

But I digress. 10:00 rolled around soon enough, and the modest-looking boys in Mines took the stage. Starting their set off with a minimal little piece of electronica, the band seized the audience’s attention instantly. Considering the fact that this was a band playing only its second or third show, the audience was quite healthy, and very enthusiastic. In fact, I can’t remember the last time there was so much hooting and hollering and applause for an opening band. That’s probably because I also can’t remember the last time I’ve seen an opening band this goddamn good! Although they are merely a trio, they switch instruments often, and have frequent washes of electronica serving as foundation for their songs, and although their sound is quite sparse, you never get the feeling that something’s missing. The fact that all three members are phenomenally creative musicians certainly doesn’t hurt anything. I’ve made the Pinback comparison before, and I’ll make it again, because they’re one of the only bands I think Mines can be accurately compared to. Snaky and unpredictable, with similar amazing musical skills, both bands have the ability to make the listener watch, jaw agape, as they pull off amazing feats of technical prowess that somehow fit perfectly within the context of an indie pop song. However, you don’t necessarily need to appreciate their technical prowess to appreciate the subtle web of sound that Mines weave. They share a kinship with bands like the Police and Steely Dan (which is not to say that they sound anything even remotely like either), whose music can be appreciated at two distinct levels -- recognition of the simple, catchy, pop aspect of their music, and appreciation for the jaw-droppingly intense musicianship that is employed in the service of said pop songs. Mines simply have "future indie-rock heroes" written all over them.

After Mines’ inspiring set, I must confess that I my expectations weren’t set terribly high for Light Heavyweight. They are another local Seattle band, whose live show I have somehow managed to miss out on entirely, despite the fact that they’ve been playing out regularly for the past year or two, and the fact that they’ve played shows with two of my good friends’ bands. Well, I guess I’ve been missing out this whole time, because these boys are worthy. Although they sport a decided Radiohead influence (especially in the singer, who sounds a hell of a lot like Thom Yorke, but also has a propensity for breaking into a Jeff Buckley-ish falsetto), they are that rarest of bands that acknowledges this influence, and moves on to create some great music despite it. They also believe that Radiohead was at their best when they were a ragin’ guitar band, and this is the influence that comes through strongest in their live show. Incorporating some very tasty Britpop hooks (think Gene or the Charlatans) and some simply excellent guitar tones, Light Heavyweight surprised on all levels. They were tight, tuneful, catchy and aggressive, and I doubt it will be long before some label or other snatches them up.

After two amazing sets from local bands, I thought for sure that Stars would prove a distant third in the sweepstakes of the evening. As I mentioned above, before this evening, I’d only heard one Stars song, a rather polite little electro-pop number on a Le Grand Magistery compilation, which did nothing to prepare me for the sheer amount of enthusiasm and energy that these guys put out when they play live. The members of the band are quite visually striking -­ most noticeable is singer Torqil Campbell, an extremely diminutive fellow who prances about the stage making declamatory gestures, jumps around like a bunny on speed, and generally makes the best use of the audience’s time that he can. On reading up on the band a bit I discovered that Campbell is also an actor, and although you wouldn’t necessarily guess it, it makes total sense in hindsight, given how extremely comfortable Campbell seemed to be on stage, playing to the crowd. It felt like he belonged up there, and that he’s probably happiest when he’s on stage. In addition to being an amazing player, bassist Evan Cranley was dressed in a pretty ludicrous outfit -­ a big-collared white shirt with the collar turned up, a red tie, a black jacket, jeans and sneakers. Throughout the whole show he was making faces like he was having a continuous orgasm or something. Needless to say, he was very entertaining to watch. Guitarist/vocalist Amy Millan sort of served as the "straight man" to the amusing antics of Campbell and Cranley -­ and while she may not have put on a particularly eye-catching performance, her vocals were simply beautiful and her guitar playing was spot-on.

So, what do Stars sound like, then? Well, the most immediate comparison I can come up with is to another electro-pop band that also puts on an extremely entertaining live show: St. Etienne. While Stars are a bit less reliant on electronic beats than their British counterparts, the comparison is still apt ­- both bands play sugary (but not quite twee) pop music, derived from ‘80s pop and ‘70s electronic stuff, and both Campbell and St. Etienne singer Sarah Cracknell are dynamic, entertaining frontpeople. The group drew most of its set list from last year’s Nightsongs; songs like "My Radio", "Counting Stars on the Ceiling", "Tru" and "International Rock Star" were full of energy and brimming with pop hooks. Although I haven’t heard the album versions of said songs, I can’t help but think that the band imbued them with a great deal more energy live than on plastic. The band also played a few new songs, which Campbell commented would appear "on a new album as soon as we get off Le Grand Travesty", indicating that all was not well between the band and their current label. However, these songs were as striking as the rest of their set, suggesting that whatever label is lucky enough to pick them up will have quite the gem on their hands.

Top to bottom, this was one of the most entertaining, thoroughly enjoyable shows that I’ve seen in a long time. Although there’s certainly a lot to recommend about seeing a favorite artist perform, it’s almost cooler to randomly stumble upon an artist that comes out of left field to blow you away. Tonight, this happened not once, but twice, with Light Heavyweight and Stars -­ and although Mines were a known quantity to me coming into the show, their set was certainly no less impressive because of that. Bravo to all concerned!

Article and photos by Jeremy Schneyer