Arpline pulled off a solid set of arena-friendly rock. Their mix leaned toward Nine Inch Nails sensibilities, sans the Trent Reznor theatrics. In other words, they’re sound was hardly suited to the vacant barn they were playing.
All the way from Australia, Sherlocks Daughter confirmed what I know about that continent’s bands: dynamism. Their sprightly lead singer, Tanya Horo, couldn’t stop hopping around the stage, which was nice to see given the sparse audience. However, I found the repeated use of their boom-boom-duh-duh beat pretty monotonous after three songs.
Sky Larkin were a welcome respite from electronics. Though no band thus far could be defined by their samples, they all relied on them to some degree. Sky Larkin, however, were your basic drums-bass-guitar trio, with an animal at the drums whose energy propelled the rest of the band.
One fan was supremely disappointed, and amazed, that Parisiens The Aikiu didn’t play their hit song, “Just Can’t Sleep.” Given that their MySpace page has six songs, five remixes of “Just Can’t Sleep” and the original, the gentleman had a point. Still, their new wave brand of dance music was melancholy and undulating in all the right ways.
Arpline
Sherlocks Daughter
Sky Larkin
The Aikiu