This is Head is a kraut-disco indie rock quartet from Malmö, Sweden who have made the rounds playing a bunch of NYC shows this week, and I caught them on their Glasslands hit, along with Norwegian Arms and Parenthetical Girls. If I were to make any comparisons – which I will – This is Head made me think of a cross between fellow Swedes The Radio Dept, and English band The Horrors. Their music does a great job of melding more European electronic sensibilities with clever indie rock. They have a funny, kind of head scratching bio, which I translated as describing how the band’s latest batch of songs are inspired by everything and nothing, but mostly ping pong.
Live, they exhibited strong energy and solid tunes that have high potential for serious improv and jam-outs. Guitarist Henric Claesson really did it for me, slamming down on his knees at all the hard breaks in the tunes, and wilding out on effects and string scratches. He definitely brought the experimental element the most, visually. Both him and bassist Tom Malmros were really going for it as far as straight up rocking out, and singer Björn Wiking on keys confidently lead the way with the melody before backing off to let the main rhythm section rock it.
Norwegian Arms was in the middle, a Philly-based three-piece that sounded like early Animal Collective crossed with early Beirut; ie, animals playing a ukulele, floor tom, and sampler/synth. They call it “weirdo-folk.” They are kind of weird, but not that weird, relatively speaking. They had a cute and lovable thing going on with songs about bicycle hunting in Russia, and other world issues ties with personal experiences.
I have to be honest, though, Parenthetical Girls pretty much stole the show. They were the headliners, after all, and the main crowd was definitely there for them. This is a band who has been buzzing all over the interwebs and on tastemakers’ tongues, and at this show I saw why. At the first note front man Zac Pennington had jittery, flamboyant dance moves and sassy storytelling lyrics. He soon took his edge of the stage act even further, jumping down into the audience, roaming around, and getting right in faces. Then there was that time he jumped in the photo booth, but sadly it wouldn’t take his card before the song was over, so no live performance photo booth photos came out.
He later climbed a stack of speakers, shook the “clouds” that have been a long-standing art installation at the venue, which rained paper and dust that had been collecting for years, and then latched onto the rail of the balcony that he proceeded to tightrope walk across until the song ended and he was right in the middle. “Ok hold on, I have to get down” he spoke into the microphone, before gracefully letting himself back down to the floor. He advised us not to worry, that he had done that before, which we would have known if we had been there the first time they played Glasslands.
He had a condescending charm about him, that was not as loathsome as that might sound. With his antics, the rest of the band could be playing the melody to clapping game “Mary Mack” and still have people enthralled with the performance. And actually, guitarist Jherek Bischoff, drummer Paul Alcott, and keyboardist/vocalist Amber Smith were doing their own interesting thing when Zac lept off stage to wander, if anyone happened to turn their head back around to check it out. It was like they took that time to really play around and fill the space left in their front man’s absence – especially Paul, who came out from behind the drum kit fairly often to hit electronic pads placed in front.
The best/most confusing part was when Zac announced that it would benefit everyone to pay attention to what was happening on stage, before taking a cymbal that had been lying on the stage with two tambourines on top of it, and tossing the tambourines up in the air over our heads. He then hurled the cymbal like a Frisbee over Jherek’s head while the tambourines rained down. That was the sole reason for those instruments to be on stage. I don’t know if I would regularly listen to this band otherwise, but I would definitely go to another show just to see what other hijinks these Portlandians pulled.
This is Head has one final show in New York Friday night at Rockwood Music Hall, before heading back to Europe where they have quite an extensive tour schedule. Norwegian Arms have a handful of shows coming up on the east coast, and Parenthetical Girls have a couple more shows lined up on the West Coast, as evidenced by their Facebook page.
