Sons and Daughters - Troubadour - September 2

Sons And Daughters blazed like a hot fire at the Troubadour Tuesday night (September 2, 2008). This band goes way back to when I first got back into music in '05. Their video for "Dance Me In" was featured on the second or third Refused TV I videotaped and it instantly intrigued me. In it Adele Bethe is photographed to look like a roadhouse Jodie Foster at this dirty, dank underground kind of prom from hell. The way she spits out the lyrics in a talk/sing style so fast you can only catch every 6th word she says, except when she ends the line with an emphatic "truth", and you instantly get the gist of what she's saying.

Anyway, I loved the video but when I went back through back issues of L.A. Weekly, I found out I'd missed a series of shows they'd played at Spaceland and The Echo in mid-2005. Being from Scotland, I realized they wouldn't be coming back for at least a year, so I put them to the side.

Three years later I see they're coming to the Troubadour, so in preparation I bought the CD The Repulsion Box last weekend. Well, it's a pretty great CD so I was really looking forward to the live show. I love their blending of '50's/B-52's/Punkish/New Wave styles. Did I miss anything?

Adele looked incredible in a '60's go-go dress (like gold chain mail) and Cleopatra eye makeup and prancing around the stage, feeding off the audience's energy and supplying plenty of her own. She's got a fabulous voice and she can purr out the words or let loose with a piercing howl. She seemed thrilled by the crowd's response to the songs, as did the whole band. She's beautifully balanced, vocal wise, by Scott Paterson who also plays the blistering guitar.

They played songs from other CD's I didn't know and "Dance Me In" from The Repulsion Box but I liked everything they played. The highlight, for me, was the song "Rama Lama", which is so steeped in Ennio Morricone you can almost see the tumble weed rolling by. The twangy guitar, the staccato beat, even the whistles. It's a terrific song and it was beautifully performed.

The audience was super enthusiastic , even though the place was not packed, but everyone was bouncing around, their music is so danceable. Adele told us the reason the other girl wasn't there was because she's pregnant, so a superb bassist was filing in, but because Ailidh Lennon is the one who plays the mandolin, they couldn't do the mandolin songs. I'd love to see that one day, but for now this was a great line up, and I was soaring from their set.

whrabbit