Any time I hear that one of my favorite bands is playing at Neumos, I think it’s a match made in Heaven. Because, well, Neumos is one of my favorite venues, so favorite + favorite = YAAAS. It’s on the smaller side, but that’s why it’s so great. It creates an intimate environment, which causes me to appreciate performances there even more.
When I was studying abroad in Wellington, New Zealand, I realized not many bands travel down under as part of their tours. Although I was initially disappointed, this created serendipitous experiences for me. I would look up venues close by and research bands that were playing that week. Sometimes, I would go not really sure if I would like the music, but then end up liking it a lot. This happened with the band Die! Die! Die!, a punk rock band from Dunedin. I discovered the band Yumi Zuma when I was still in Seattle and saw that they were playing in New Zealand. I ended up buying a ticket, and it turned out that they were from there! There were also times when popular artists or bands from New Zealand performed, but since they were so well-known around the world, tickets sold out fast. Lorde performed on Halloween, but I was unable to get a ticket, so I was happy I got to see her during Deck the Hall Ball 2013. However, I was completely devastated when Broods sold out and I had no inclination as to when they would tour Seattle.
On March 10, 2015, Broods toured Seattle and I had the opportunity to bask in their sparkly presence. I mean that literally and figuratively. Their music is a filled with synth-y, electronic, and poppy sounds all mixed into a blender with a dash of sparkly goodness. My friend Nichelle and I decided that any time we come across a band that produces magical and ethereal-sounding music, we’ll call it “sparkly.” What I meant by “literally” sparkly was that the female singer, Georgia Nott, decked her face out with glitter. Even her ear pieces were bedazzled. How many times did I use “sparkly” in this paragraph? Including the sentence before, five times. (Say “sparkly” again. SPARKLY…I hope you got that reference or this could be a smidge awkward.) Not to continue talking about their appearance…but I’m going to continue talking about their appearance.
If you think Capitol Hill is filled with fashionably hip kids, you need to make your way down to New Zealand to check out the Kiwis (the people, not the fruit.) Georgia had her blonde hair slicked back, sported a shear-white turtle neck with a white bandeau underneath, white boy shorts, and a long white lab coat-esque jacket, and pranced around in white platform shoes. Caleb Nott, her older brother and bandmate, wore a long, white-collared shirt, black skinny jeans, black boots, all whilst balancing a majestic top-knot gracefully on his head. Going back to the older brother bit, I totally did not know until I starting writing this that they were siblings. This realization makes my, “Whoa, that’s weird. They look so much alike!” exclamation at the concert seem utterly stupid now. But hey, I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I used to be the pop punk-loving, Warped Tour-attending kid who knew the first and last names (maybe even middle names) of the members of all her favorite bands [insert horrible flashbacks here]. Which leads me to my next detail about the show.
Since I wanted to get the best possible spot to ensure the best possible review I could provide to all you rad readers, I decided to stay in the “under 21” section. This is the pit area, which I actually prefer more than the upstairs section. When you’re upstairs, you have to elbow people for a good balcony spot so you can lean against the railing, and the fact that it’s on the left side of the stage makes it not as fun to watch (I’m probably just really picky).The downside was that there was, well, no alcohol and that I was surrounded by my middle school/ early high school clones. I expected people in the “21 and up” section to be, well, 21 and up—but not THAT up. Maybe late twenties tops. During the show, I felt a dribble of some type of cold liquid run down my arm. When I looked up, I saw a middle-aged man waving around a can of beer as he danced to the magical melodies. Upon further inspection, most of the people who occupied the balcony were much older than I anticipated. Which of course isn’t bad; kudos to older adults with good music taste. The contrast just took me aback a bit.
My favorite song they performed was by far “Pretty Thing.” During all of their songs, Georgia is the lead vocals and you can faintly hear Caleb singing backup vocals/harmonies. Although Georgia has more parts in this song as well, there’s a moment when their voices alternate and it’s absolutely beautiful. I hope that in their future songs, they incorporate an equal amount of both of their voices. Their final song was “Mother & Father,” which was really nostalgic because I listened to it all the time during my trip abroad. It was kind of a weird experience hearing it live, since they’re from the place I was at abroad. It was also weird because it resurfaced feelings of homesickness I had for my home in Colorado where my parents live. Even though it made me sad, I love when shows can make me feel a range of emotions. Yes, there were a couple melancholy and slower songs, but their performance was ultimately upbeat and fun. You know how sometimes you’ll go to a show, and the musicians will dance along to their own music but it looks awkward? This was not the case for Broods. They grooved and jammed gracefully, making it feel like a dance party. I definitely look forward to seeing them again.
Normally, opening acts are discussed at the beginning of a review, but I felt like it didn’t flow quite well when I had it formatted that way. So this is a shout out to the artist Mikky Ekko who gave an awesome performance and set the exciting mood for Broods. My friend Marcus, who you may know as our Promotions Director, went with me to the show and described him perfectly: a poppy version of Vance Joy. He even had Vance Joy’s curly locks! He recently came out with his album Time, so I highly recommend checking it out.
I can’t wait until I get to write another overly-descriptive review for you all.
Cristina Vazquez de Mercado / Pink Plastic Lawn Flamingo Thief / KXSU Film Reviews Reporter