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Café DuNord March 24, 2004 Review by Mike Carr I was a bit nervous about going to the show last night. I’d never seen Replicator and I’m getting a little old to be going to rock and roll shows but all my fears were soon put to rest. Replicator took the stage and looking very dapper in matching suits and neatly coifed hair. After a few polite, soft spoken introductions, they launched into a set primarily made up of Carpenters and Dionne Warwick covers. Set highlights included aheart wrenching rendition of “Rainy Days and Mondays” and an upbeat but tender “Mandy.” They spontaneous started playing the first bit of “La Bamba” as a lark, adding a much appreciated Latin flair to the evening. A friend from the audience was called up to the stage to play muted trumpet on “I Say a Little Prayer”— a nice homage to the Bacharach arrangement. The set closed with “Sweet Caroline” which got the whole bar singing along. But the crowd wouldn’t let them go quite yet, so the band stayed and played their signature cover of “Louie, Louie”— they really hammed it up on the end going on about how they really had to go. All in all quite a show, quite a show indeed… Ok…so what actually happened: The Replicator experience was much more loud, aggressive and chaotic than I expected. It was a welcome switch up for me—lately I’ve been listing to a lot of lush chamber-pop ballad type music so this is a total departure from that. Replicator’s songs surged and waned driven along by a beat that hit you like a gunshot. Ben’s a very talented musician—great on bass, but I would have loved to hear a bit more of his keyboard playing (I think it was on the last song of the night he had a brief little burst of keyboards that really left me wanting more). Christopher’s drumming is everything you’d want in a band like this: steady and rocking and explosive when need be. Moreover his drumming style really added to the drama of the performance. Conan’s guitar and vocals completed the sound--I see what they meant by saying they “[he] hurls himself at the music as if it were a brick wall.” In short, the boy went off. Great stuff. A few rough spots in the show—a couple of technical difficulties (but of course that’s going to happen on opening night). They did briefly become a quartet when an exuberant fan/friend? got on stage—entertaining, but a bit distracting as he played along with Conan’s extra unplugged guitar. Some nice jams in there with some tight playing between Ben and Conan. Wish I was feeling a bit better because the show was much more high energy than I was due to my cold. I ended up sitting through the whole set. --- Read our previous Replicator review: August 23, 2003 @ Toxic Beach January 3, 2003 @ Edinburgh Castle May 30, 2001 @ Bottom of the Hill ©2004 playinginfog.com |