—reviewed by Diana Spradlin
This weekend, music will heal your election-weary soul. Grinnell will host two concerts, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Whether you want to calmly sulk in introspection or dance wildly, hungering for a protest, these concerts will feed your need.
Playing with Earlimart and Aspects of Physics, Pinback performs in Gardner Lounge on Saturday. With detailed melodies and soothing vocals, this band offers a unique indie rock sound without succumbing to pretension. Catchy and refined, their songs represent an excellent balance between clever lyrics and layered harmonies. Their music is poignant without being overwhelmingly emotional, witty without being condescending. San Diego’s Zach Smith (ex-3 Mile Pilot) and Rob Crow (Thingy and ex-Heavy Vegetable) do not merely play indie rock music, but rather reformulate the genre. They create mellow, yet danceable ballads that are surprisingly complex, beautiful and different.
Le Tigre’s highly-anticipated performance, taking place in Harris on Sunday, will undoubtedly appeal to Grinnell’s activists, liberals and music enthusiasts. Creating fierce anthems, involving social and political issues, feminism, and sexuality, Le Tigre combines electronic sounds and punk rock.
The band intersperses sound clips from war protests and news broadcasts throughout their songs to produce high-energy music that is not only extremely danceable but also powerful and inspiring. Whether sharply criticizing the war in Iraq or referring to feminism and gay and lesbian rights, vocalist Kathleen Hanna (ex-Bikini Kill) bares the band’s strong opinions on controversial issues, sometimes breaking into angry, shrill shouts. The effect is undeniably unique: intelligent dance music, tough and estrogen-soaked.
Le Tigre will undoubtedly appeal to the current political climate on campus. In the song “Seconds,” Hanna viciously breaks into an anti-Bush tantrum, screaming “you make me sick” after repeated references to lying and warmongering. In the song “Get Off the Internet,” Le Tigre urges others to “meet [them] in the streets” and “destroy the right wing.” Playing with The Gossip and Measles Mumps Rubella, the band will put on a show intrinsically different from others at Grinnell. With slide shows and their own dance moves, Le Tigre not only entertains its audiences, but also emboldens them.
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