San Francisco – This past Saturday, the 24th annual Noise Pop Festival chugged ahead on its penultimate night with a slew of shows happening across the city at different venues, including a fantastic (though somewhat familiar) set by Texas’ Neon Indian, held at the Mezzanine in SoMa. The Mezzanine splits its time evenly as a nightclub showcasing today’s many DJ talents, as well as one of the city’s more popular music venues, often highlighting the best and brightest in electronic music. Though, it does so with all the electric vibrancy of a contemporary disco. Neon Indian’s show brought all the lights and effects available to life, doing the same for the elated crowd at the sold-out show.
Neon Indian has been on the road touring behind the stellar album VEGA INTL Night School, which was released last fall and was lauded by many critics – including myself - as one of the best albums of 2015. VEGA INTL is Neon Indian’s most ambitious and yet most accessible work yet, encasing modern technology and a contemporary mindset within the shell of 80s and 90s dance pop. This was Neon Indian’s second appearance in San Francisco since the album’s release. It was almost like a victory lap for Alan Palomo and his four traveling musicians, as their first show back in September, though wonderful, seemed to garner some backlash. That previous performance was seen by some as sub-par (mostly due to the difficulties stemming from the new venue, Goldenvoice’s SF Social Hall). The Mezzanine set – though identical in content to the prior San Fran show – was crisper and clearly more rehearsed. The response was wildly enthusiastic in nature.
The majority of the set was devoted to the newer material off VEGA INTL, starting off with “Dear Skorpio Magazine” and blasting through the many moods of the album. Shadowy, spacey ballad “Baby’s Eyes,” the trippy demented sounds of “Street Level,” funky “The Glitzy Hive,” and the psychedelic safari of lead single “Annie” were easy highlights, while deeper cuts like “C’est La Vie (Say the Casualties!)” and “61 Cygni Ave” evoked quizzical looks from some audience members but were nonetheless able to get people dancing. The best performance came in the form of “Slumlord,” being played back-to-back with its mostly instrumental sequel “Slumlord’s Re-Release” (which immediately follows “Slumlord” on the LP), as the crowd was bombarded with strobes and a cascade of glow-stick toting balloons, all bouncing maniacally through the crowd with each pounding bass beat, driving the song and the crowd into a deafening crescendo.
Again, Neon Indian also gave us some older jams, namely three off debut LP Psychic Chasms: “Terminally Chill” played near the opening of the set, “Mind, Drips” offered a nice, mellow midpoint, and Alan Palomo called to the audience for help in singing set closer “Deadbeat Summer,” before which he offered the hilarious commentary of saying that it was their last song, “but you know it’s not… baiting for an encore is bullshit, so let’s just say we’re gonna play the fuck out of some more songs.” And play they did, for after a brief recess they came back on to bounce through Era Extraña favorite “Polish Girl,” before cleaning up the night with VEGA INTL Night School’s final track, “News from the Sun.”
It’s always a pleasure seeing a band you love flourish on the live stage. Though I enjoyed Neon Indian’s last performance, I was a little disheartened to hear it was received so poorly by some of my peers. I would’ve liked some changes to the set – I was really banking on finally hearing “Techno Clique” – but it was executed flawlessly, and this time, there was no argument to that effect.
Neon Indian’s latest LP VEGA INTL Night School is now available via Mom + Pop. Alan Palomo will be on tour with his full band this Spring in the southern US, and Neon Indian is slated to appear at several festivals. For more information, visit the Neon Indian Facebook page.
Photo Credit: Corey Bell for Best New Bands
Corey Bell
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