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Bottom of the Hill March 30, 2003 Review by Jake Thomas I am constantly professing my love for Young People to pretty much anyone willing to listen. The music is rad, Katie has one of my favorite female voices out there, and they put on a great show. I’m still a little bummed that they moved to NYC, it was great when they were still in California and would come up and play the Hemlock or house parties or whatever all of the time…but time marches on or some such stupid saying. At least they have been touring quite a bit since moving so very far away, allowing me at least periodic glimpses at their greatness. Predictably, like every other time I’ve seen them this time was great as well. This is minimalist art-pop, and probably one of the best examples to be found anywhere (for lack of a better genre to throw them in, and I’m pretty sure this one doesn’t even exist – think Bjork meets Cat Power for the closest approximation). For their finale, the two non-giant Aussies from Liars came on stage to help fill in their sound, and they performed a raucous, rocking number the likes of which I’d never heard nor expected from my beloved Young People. But it was great anyways. I’d been both looking forward to and dreading this Liars show for a while. I’d heard from folks whose opinions matter to me, as well as on the internet, very mixed reactions to both their new album and their live show. I still haven’t heard the new album, which is apparently a theme number about witches, but their debut “They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top” was one of my favorite records of 2002. as a live outfit, they pretty much lived up to what I expected – surly, surreal and scintillating. They didn’t play a single song I knew, which bummed me out a bit; but with the nature of their performance, it could have been that I just didn’t recognize it under all of the insanity. Singer/guitarist/pedal stomper Angus was a sight to behold, all lanky and staggering and not looking like he was perfectly above board when it came to his faculties. The drummer, dressed in a skirt and “manties” and a fancy moustache, was an absolute machine. And the other dude, who played pretty much a little of everything but mostly guitar, looked quite normal on that stage compared to the other two, which was nearly as disconcerting as it wasn’t. although all of this was obviously not sitting well with everyone at the show and many left early, there were still plenty of us sticking around to shake booty and enjoy the pure chaos on the stage. --- Read our previous Young People review: January 20, 2003 @ Bottom of the Hill ©2003 playinginfog.com |