Due to my pork taco addiction and some out of town friends, unfortunately meant we missed the amazing and awesome Thee Emergency on Friday night at Neumos. “Pork taco addiction” sounds dirty. However we arrived at the venue just in time to catch most of the Daedelus set, which was pretty fucking incredible. Seriously, that shit was unreal.
This sweaty, steampunky dude with huge mutton chops was hovering over an awesome little light box (later found to be a Monome) to create the chunkiest bass beats and remixes on the fly. Truly entertaining to watch, Daedelus was like some freaky mad scientist spinning dials and twitching over his machine in time to the beats, providing more visual entertainment than I’m used to from an electronic artist. The whole room was moving right along with him. I highly recommend seeing him next time he comes to town. The latter part of his set wasn’t as good as the beginning; he remixed “Elephant Gun” by Beirut and it just didn’t work. But whatever …
Head Like A Kite began its stage setup shortly after, with familiar mannequin heads all dressed in wigs and masks. The room fell into darkness as drummer Trent Moorman and singer/sound guru Dave Einmo took the stage to begin with track 2 off the new album, “She’s Wearing That Costume.” It’s an okay song. Punchy. Girls in ridiculous hats appeared onstage to toss beads to the audience. Hey, it was a party.
Continuing, we heard mostly cuts off the new album, with a few older tracks tossed in for good measure. I was pleased to hear the sexy, old school strut of “No Ordinary Caveman” and the new “Robot Makes Love With the Swing Set, 1976”. It’s straight up funky blaxploitation theme music with crazy psychedelic guitar solos; really great guitar work on that one. It’s a new favorite. Another I like quite a bit is the fast-paced and highly danceable “My Very First Ransom Note”. Apparently the audience thought so too and all bounced along in time as Einmo performed from the floor.
The night was peppered with onstage guests ranging from an otherworldly ape and panda bear to actual, real-live people including Dita Vox from Thee Emergency lending her fantastic pipes on “Let’s Start It All Again” and Tilson arriving to perform back to back tracks off the new album. I was glad I got to see Dita perform at least one song, she’s the sexiest performer in Seattle. I actually prefer her vocals to Asya Smoosh on that song.
“We’re Always on the Wrong Side of Sunrise” had some serious ranginess on guitar, the track translates very well live. Tilson was having a lot of fun up onstage, but what was up with everyone being so overdressed? Seriously, he was in a jacket and knit cap, and both Daedelus and Dave Einmo were in full-on suits and covered in sweat all night. Crazy kids. Anyway, “Director’s Cut” ends with this gorgeous full neck slide that was all Prince. I hear a lot of Prince in HLAK, actually, a lot of Neil Young in the guitar and a lot of “Beat It” in the drum work. None of these are bad things.
Of course a hard-hatted Terry Radjaw was in attendance and effortlessly provided some additional rhymes to the evening’s set. The man is just so damned talented and confident onstage, a pleasure to watch and hear. I have no idea what song it was that he performed. This was followed by the HLAK redux of Neil Young’s “Ohio” which is always good: erratic keys and literally phoned-in vocals. I love the effect that screaming through a phone receiver has on Einmo’s voice and he uses it to its full capacity on “Ohio”. Moorman deftly spun his drumsticks like the pro that he is while providing the perfect backbeats to the song. The audience shouted along with the vocals from start to finish.
Winding down the night, HLAK encored with two old favorites, “Your Butt Crack Smile” is such a cool song, and that little New Order segue in the middle always makes me laugh out loud. “A Dime & A Cigarette” was played to album-quality perfection, save for the vocals sounding a bit tired. Regardless whether he sounded tired, you couldn’t tell by watching Einmo play to the audience to the very end.
Overall, it was a very good, high energy and entertaining show. I will admit that after my first two listens, I wasn’t sold on Dreams Suspend Night, but I think on stage all of the work comes across very well and keeps Head Like a Kite true to their original sound.\
*** Head Like A Kite file photo by Dave Lichterman
