TVotR and Dirty Projectors

Two nights ago Maranda and I attended a TV on the Radio concert at the 9:30 club in DC. The opening group was Dirty Projectors. We had never heard of Dirty Projectors, but were quite impressed. They are an odd group, they were all dressed in very dated looking clothing (vintage?), had frumpy hair, and had very awkward dancing styles to say the least! They are touring their just released Bitte Orca album, which we found to be really amazing! With two female vocalists singing elaborate harmonies in sharp contrast to the guitar riffs and the powerful male lead singers voice. Based on our ears, this group has tremendous potential. See Bitte Orca review on Pitchfork (linked above) for a much better review than my meager attempt.

TV on the Radio performed their extremely successful 2008 album Dear Science. It was a smashing performance, with Nigerian born Adebimpe ripping up the stage with powerful and expressive vocals and equally expressive dancing. Guitarist and vocalist Kyp Malone has a crazy cool beard and hair and an equally expressive personality. In Dear Science he often soars into falsetto, which combined with Adibimpe's expressive whistling adds a lot of uniqueness to the TVotR sound. While I liked the album pretty well on the iPod, I LOVED IT in concert, the songs took on an entirely new life, making it a night to remember!