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Carla Azar beams "The Bouncing Wall" into the GAMH ether on Aug. 11. |
Holy crap is it great to see Autolux back in action.
Six years have passed since the L.A. trio released its debut album -- or, six years that the band has had to take a Louisville Slugger to the question, “When is your next album coming out?”
With that, last week Autolux liberated Transit Transit from the confines of record label turmoil, offering up a solid follow-up that expands on the dreamy art rock of Future Perfect by dipping into more sonic effects, piano-driven Beatle-esque melodies and drum machine grooves.
Six years have passed since the L.A. trio released its debut album -- or, six years that the band has had to take a Louisville Slugger to the question, “When is your next album coming out?”
With that, last week Autolux liberated Transit Transit from the confines of record label turmoil, offering up a solid follow-up that expands on the dreamy art rock of Future Perfect by dipping into more sonic effects, piano-driven Beatle-esque melodies and drum machine grooves.
Translating this more complex sound live is a bit more complicated than the three-piece blissed-out rock of live performances past. Their tour kickoff show at the Great American Music Hall on Aug. 11 went off grandly with only a few hitches that are expected of any first show, but the band has plenty of time on their month-plus tour to work out the kinks.
If there’s anything Autolux proved to the packed GAMH it’s that they’re ready to move the *cuss* on. They played the entirety of their new album, bookending the show with the opening first two tracks and closing with "Heartless Sky," despite an audience pleading for "Capital Kind of Strain."
Good move. Some members of the crowd -- which contained a few overenthusiastic frat-packers up front who insisted upon an awkward "Autolux! Autolux!" football chant at times -- perpetually requested tracks from the Future Perfect canon, but the band didn't cave.
Vocalist/bassist Eugene Goreshter seemed surprised at the shout-outs for so many "oldies but goodies." But I think Autolux proved their new songs' worth with energetic renditions of "Audience No. 2," "Census" and the epic "The Science of Imaginary Solutions."
Sure, the guitar could have been louder at points and technical issues didn't do "Spots" and "The Bouncing Wall" justice, but the songs of Transit Transit are perfectly Autolux -- beautiful, drugged-out, but not in a junkie kind of way, and utterly rocking.
That's not to say they ignored their first record, as those "oldies" are still damn good. "Plantlife" toward the end of the show served as a peak for me, seeing these three beast musicians attack their instruments, particularly Carla Azar on drums.
I left the show on an Autolux high, contemplating a drive to L.A. to catch the last show of their tour, Sept. 18 at the El Rey.
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