Sleigh Bells - Live at Ridgewood Temple 5/11/10

Last night, noise pop extraordinaires, Sleigh Bells, played a show at Ridgewood Temple in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The first opener, Sundelles went on around 9:30, rumbling forth with sunburned indie rock. While standing on line for beer, I noticed a tall, broad gentleman walk in, hand in hand with a pretty, young girl. It took me a second, but I quickly realized they were Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin of dreampop upstarts Cults, who I had posted about earlier. Accompanied by a full backing band, Cults' live sound is a lot different than what their etheral single, "Go Outside", would suggest. While that song sways in the gentle breeze on vinyl, the addition of drums, bass, and a second guitar player, gave the song a funkier sound, that suited it well, although it didn't quite have the magic of its "studio" counterpart. The band seemed a little tense at first but eventually eased into the set - an understandable, minor flaw considering this was approximately their third show ever.

The wait between Cults and Sleigh Bells seemed infinite, considering the instrumentation setup was minimal. Finally the lights dimmed as a metal song blasted from the monitors, eventually breaking apart like a scratched CD fighting it's way off a stuck note. In a flash, Derek E. Miller took the stage, guitar held prominently in his hands - he banged out the first chord like a siren calling the crowd to arms. Suddenly, an explosion of sound began with the thunderous canon blasts of "Tell 'Em", the first track off Treats, the band's debut album, released digitally that day. Alexis Krauss took the stage wearing a tie dyed moo moo and leather coat. Strutting her stuff on stage, she delivered her sugar-tinged vocals like a sexy, disinterested waitress telling you the specials - and there were many specials. Meanwhile, the crowd was flipped into absolute ecstacy, jumping and dancing in a sea of sweat and warm bodies. The liberating nature of the destructive music got cranked into full blast as they pounded into the tribal, "Infinity Guitars", probably the most decipherable song lyrically in their repertoire, evident in the audience's accompanying vocals.

The swirling rush of the show was so strong that before you knew it, you were back on the ground, waiting for the encore - this of course was not before Krauss stage dived into the audience during "Crown On The Ground", being carried all the way to the middle of the temple. The wait was brief, and she quickly came back and did a great rendition of "Rill Rill" (a song that's title seems to be disputed so much that even she drew attention to it saying, "this song is called 'Rill Rill', or 'Ring Ring' or whatever the fuck you want to call it" -paraphrased). The show itself was only about a half hour (roughly the length of the record), but the intensity was so strong that another five minutes would have felt like it was bordering on becoming dangerous.

When the show ended, I couldn't find my sweater which I had put on the front of the stage. I hopped on and ended up backstage where the band was with their friends. I asked Alexis if she saw it to which she told me she kicked it backward at one point during the show by accident. Eventually I located it and on my way out, briefly spoke with Derek who had just finished breaking down his equipment. A very nice fellow, we talked about the physical release of the album which he speculated would be June 1st. I thanked him and bid him adieu. A fantastic show through and through, and if the album lives up to my predictions, a show for the history books.

Check out Brooklyn Vegan for more pics.