Its been a while since Ive been to a show at the Commodore. I think its been nearly 2 years since April of 2008 for Chromeo. Wow. Anyhow, I missed the XX last time they were here. I think they opened for Friendly Fires (nice double bill) and even stuffed in a gig at Zulu Records ("...it was packed"). I didnt even know about the XX until the year end best of lists. I'd actually heard a remix of Night Time sometime during 2009 and really dug the whole stylish quiet storm type of vibe but didnt know how much of that remix was original production and what was from the remix. As they were all over the year end lists, it was time for me to play catch up and really look them up....
...to my real surprise, that remix was literally adding a bit of a house back beat and thats it. The rest was all of the OG material: the serene, melancoly guitars and voice and best of all, it was very stripped down. It was so much of a change - in the less is more way - compared to all the insane mish mash everything under the sun no attention span mashups these days. Then I realized, after hearing the whole album, that the XX had a female and male lead vocalist and they traded impassioned odes to horny longings like a shoe gazing Run DMC tag team. It reminded me of Sade crossed with the Cure. A stripped down, more acoustic version of Ladytron. It was an instant classic album to me. So much so that I did the unthinkable - I went out and purchased their CD.
Anyhow, learning my lesson of missing shows of those I really wanna see (also just copped my LCD Soundsystem ticket yesterday after missing their Sound of Silver tour), I jumped at the chance to see them coming back so soon. The first thing that struck me was how though it was only a 3 person show with an already very minimal and stripped down sound, it was still what a live show should be. I'm comparing this to a show like Chromeo for example where they really put on the boogie most of the time but during a lot of the show, the only thing that is live is the vocals and the keys. Down to 3 from the original 4 person lineup, it was Romy Madley Croft on vocals and guitar, Oliver Sim on vocals and bass and I believe whom must have been Jamie Smith on the drum machine and effects (with some brief live drum breaks).
This was so dope seeing this hauntingly refined sound all the way live. Since the beats make up for a lot of the XX sound, it was kinda cool to see the actual beats being played live off the actual drum machine compared to a real drum set since I think the original beats sound would have been lost. And obviously better than just having Croft and Sim singing and playing over a preprogrammed drum machine - which so many shows today still do.
Anyhow, the set was short and sweet, like most of their songs. Their less is more sound really engage in the live setting. Oh, yeah, I bought a shirt too. Its black with a white X on it. So simple yet again....
