Wednesday night, I made the trek up from Richmond with a couple of other music fans and saw the best set that I've seen all year. Period. America, when will you come to your senses and realize that you're crazy about Love Is All?
Love Is All was not the headliner for the show (Tilly and the Wall had the top slot on the bill). However, these five Swedes came out and immediately kicked into Talk Talk Talk with guitarist Nicholaus Sparding and bassist Johan Lindwall trading off vocals with singer Josephine Olausson. On record, the band's playing is tight and danceable. Live...they're faster and maybe even tighter still. They swerved around to Ageing Has Never Been His Friend and Used Goods. While Olausson's singing is as expressive and witty I was most impressed with the singing of the rest of the band. This was especially true on their cover of Nothing To Be Done by the Pastels where Sparking and Olausson traded off the boy and girl vocal parts. By the time they ended Busy Doing Nothing, the entire club was applauding loudly. I can't remember the last time that I saw an opening band totally win over an audience the way that Love Is All won over the floor of the Black Cat. People in the audience were literally calling out for more, but the band had to make way for the headliner Tilly and the Wall.
Love Is All's music owes a lot to female fronted dance-punk bands such as Delta 5, Comet Gain and most recently The Long Blondes. However, they're probably the tightest and most energetic band to come out of that style of music. They also do a phenomenal job with their song writing combining wit, anger, sarcasm and sadness in songs ranging from the down beat Turn The Radio Off to the darkly humorous Ageing Has Never Been His Friend. If those ingredients sizzle on record, Love Is All set the kitchen on fire for their set in DC.
So why so little love on this side of the pond? Their debut is on the rather small What's Your Rupture who's been trying valiantly to promote the record. They got a huge review by Pitchforkmedia but that was nearly two months before their record was released. Since then, they've made the trip across the pond a couple of times this year but only to a few venues - their current tour is only seven shows in the U.S. and three in Canada.
Part of me wishes better for them because they obviously work so hard for their music. The other part of me is convinced they'll make many many people happy who take a moment to give them a listen. The crowd reaction at the Black Cat that night only reinforced that belief. Love Is All will make you sway, and rock , and clap your hands to the beat , and get up and dance. Just go see them. Or at least have a listen.
My Trusted MOGs
Just downloaded "Talk Talk Talk Talk"...what a fun song!
jk