Review: Blonde Redhead at The Grey Eagle
My relationship with live music has been hanging on by a thread for years. But this growing disconnect with my decades-long love affair can be attributed to a multitude of factors wholly out of the control of the touring musicians.
My small stature has always been a hindrance in regards to my enjoyment of concerts. As anyone cursed with below-average height can attest, it’s way more engaging to watch the band performing on stage than the back of someone’s head for a couple of hours. In my 20s, my solution to this problem was to get to a show early and camp out up front, but as I’ve gotten older and my back has revolted against me, I’ve had to retreat to the back of the room.
Somewhere in my mid-30s, I also made the transition from a night owl to a morning person. Gone are the days when I’d consume several Red Bulls over the course of a night in order to catch a 1 a.m. set by an up-and-coming experimental noise duo at the local DIY venue that was incapable of starting on time.
All this preamble is just to say, only a very short list of bands could have lured me out of my most recent winter hibernation. My love of Blonde Redhead dates back to the first time that I heard the New York City trio’s 2000 release Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. It was at the height of the era during which music piracy and faster internet connections first made it possible for college students to procrastinate from writing papers, and instead download entire libraries of music that they could not possibly afford to pay for.
By the time the band’s next collection of psychedelia-tinged dream pop, Misery Is A Butterfly, was released in 2004, I was enough of a fan that I bought a copy on CD without having heard a single song. Back in the pre-streaming days, there was an excitement in buying an album, bringing it home, and finding out that it wasn’t a waste of the little bit of spending cash available.
From the opening moments of the spectacular baroque psychedelic pop of “Elephant Woman” to the more dissonant noise rock of closer “Equus,” Misery Is A Butterfly is a perfect album. And although so many of my past favorites have lost some of their appeal, the trio’s 2004 masterpiece has steadily remained a go-to listen over the past two decades.
In that time span, Blonde Redhead continued to evolve from its ’90s origin as a noise rock band in the vein of Sonic Youth towards more atmospheric dream pop, releasing several more excellent albums. They’ve always sounded distinctly original.
Following the release of the group’s ninth studio release, Barragán, in 2014, there was a significant period of relative inactivity, and in the time leading up to new album Sit Down For Dinner (2023), Blonde Redhead’s star faded a bit. In a world where so many artists are vying for attention, it’s easy to slip out of the hype machine’s peripheral view.
That Sit Down For Dinner didn’t receive the kind of fanfare generally reserved for the return of a beloved band after a decade-long hiatus was not related to the quality of the new collection of tunes. The record was well worth the long wait. Picking up where they had left off with Barragán, Sit Down For Dinner is a rhythmic dream pop fantasia with subtle hints of reggae and dub influence. What may initially be perceived as an airy atmospheric album grows with each listen, revealing some of the catchiest hooks of the trio’s entire discography.
At The Grey Eagle on Feb. 24, the strength of Blonde Redhead’s latest batch of tunes was further put on display. On stage in front of a jam-packed crowd, Kazu Makino (vocals/keys/guitar) and twin brothers Simone (drums) and Amedeo Pace (vocals/guitar/bass) set the tone for the evening by launching straight into a quartet of fan favorites: “Falling Man,” “Dr. Strangeluv,” “Doll Is Mine,” and “Elephant Woman.” Amedeo and Makino alternated lead vocal duties, with each sounding as heavenly as they had in the mid-aughts, when those songs were still new.
With it clear just how magical those classics could still be, the trio began to incorporate some of its latest tunes into the mix, beginning with Sit Down For Dinner opener “Snowman.” Even after the extreme high of hearing four straight songs deeply-entrenched in my DNA, the live rendition of the recent single shined as an early set highlight.
A few songs later, the two-part “Sit Down For Dinner” proved just as glorious. During the ambient first section, Makino’s breathy vocals presented an alluring sense of yearning, which eventually gave way to the bouncier, energetic second part of the suite. Additional new tunes “Melody Experiment,” “Kiss Her Kiss Her,” and “Rest of Her Life” also maintained the high level of excellence amongst a set equally loaded with favorites from beloved albums Misery Is A Butterfly and 23 (2007).
It’s rare to witness a concert so fully satisfying, during which every song played could be considered the standout of the night, but Blonde Redhead’s set was truly flawless. It was a reminder of what I’ve always loved about shows. As enjoyable as it can be to hear recorded music through a good set of headphones, another level of transcendence can be reached when experiencing those songs in the live setting.
(Photos by Jonny Leather)
