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Life & Arts

TV on the Radio's act will inspire

by DUSTI RHODES
The Daily Cougar

It was spiritual. It was intense and aggressive. It was soulful. It was more than a concert -- it was a musical experience. In other words, it was what a performance should be.

It's hard to describe the TV on the Radio show that took place Saturday night at Warehouse Live without sounding cheesy, but the truth is, the group's performance leaves me no choice.

TVOTR has an ability to take its studio recordings and breathe even more life into them on stage, making for an experience that is more than just a repeat of tracks in a live setting. The group infects its songs with emotion and changes up the instrumentation so even though the audience-members will recognize their favorite song, they will hear it in a way they may never hear again. The band members switch out instruments with one another including an accordion, a guitar with wind chimes dangling from the neck and a set of sleigh bells, among other things. During all of this, lead singer Tunde Adebimpe dances and flails around as he gives every piece of himself to the either the music or the audience -- it's hard to tell.

One of the highlights of the evening was the last encore featuring "Ambulance" from TVOTR's 2004 release Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. The "dum dum dum's" that usually make up the backdrop of the song were replaced by guitarist/etc. David Andrew Sitek's beat-boxing as Adebimpe led the way with his slightly softer staccato version of the lyrics backed by the high-pitched vocals of guitarist Kyp Maline. As the song ended, there was a brief hush over the crowd before it bursted into applause and begged for one more. But that was it for the night and no doubt the next show will not be nearly as intimate (the band is rumored to be opening for Nine Inch Nails in the near future.) Concerts like Saturday's only come around about three or four times before the inept smarten up.

Warehouse Live wasn't bursting at the doors from attendance, which means that a number of music fans in Houston are going to be cursing themselves in a couple of months as TVOTR climbs to the top of the charts and, no doubt, releases yet another amazing collection of songs. They will wonder why they didn't take the opportunity to see them as budding stars when their shows were under $20 instead of more than $30. TVOTR's performance was a testament to their development as a band and a musical mainstay in the years to come.TV on the Radio

@ The Studio at Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel

Verdict: Yeah, it was that good.
 

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