Before taking the stage later in the evening at Doug Fir Lounge (one of the hippest venues I’ve been to), San Francisco based ungoogle-able lo-fi group Girls graced the citizens of Portland with a free show at Jackpot Records. Although the quarters were small and the stage was even smaller, Christopher Owens and company put on a very pleasant sounding show for the cramped crowd.
The group performed six songs from their critically acclaimed debut, including favorites “Laura” and “Lust for Life”. Owens, dressed in an 80s looking magenta and teal track jacket (one can assume to match his painted fingernails) was hindered throughout the set due to space constraints, allowing for more shoegaze than I can imagine is in a typical Girls set. Energetic numbers, like “Morning Light”, fell a little flat performance-wise, however, they nailed it sonically as each song was almost an exact replica of the album. Here is one more shot from the show of bassist Chet “JR” White who has some of the most bad ass chest hair I have ever seen.
Tags: Concert Photos, Girls, Jackpot Records, mp3
[...] 17 // Girls – S/T This album bounced around my list the most, getting placed anywhere from 32 to 8, before finally landing at 17 spot, which is coincidental as most songs channel 17 year-old freshman-in-college feelings. Where the complexity of Atlas Sound worked a bit against them, the same is true with Girls and their simplicity. Lead-singer Christopher Owens & Co. produce songs that I feel like, if given a guitar and three months of practice, I could make. You know, the songs whose description can be summed up in sentence, making it near impossible for critics to reach their editor imposed word count without a ridiculous amount of filler. However, these deceptively simple arrangements are part of the groups appeal as almost all songs are sing-alongable and swayable (yeah, two made-up word…). Regardless, I think anyone who has seen them live can attest to – keep you money and just buy the album! [...]