Day 11

Interview

Bandmembers Lizzi Bougatsos, Brian DeGraw, Tim DeWit and Josh Diamond utilize all manner of percussion, keyboards and electronics to create a sort of melting-pot avant-pop, music that hints at everything from synth-pop to hip-hop to new age, from psychedelia to Middle Eastern dance music to Afrobeat.

I was expecting good things Monday night, a few less when Growing canceled, but was not prepared for far and away the greatest set of all time.

There have been reports aplenty of Gang Gang Dance's unpredictable and terrific live shows, but it's difficult enough to be clear and direct about music in the first place, let alone a sprawling improvisational live show. At their peak the band seemed to be using two to three percussionists, including a full drum set with plenty of kick, steel drums, and a drum machine, possibly either programmed or played, a bed of sustained synth chords, a higher and more melodic synthesizer line, one or two guitars, a voice kind of like Bjork in a pleasant but definitely otherworldly mode, and enough reverb and delay to swallow the crowd whole. Not to mention the spectacle of Liz Bougatsos shimmying around with waist-length hair and tallest heels I've ever seen a performer wear. The superlative sound at the Triple Door certainly didn't hurt.

For the most part, though, this will fall prey to what I'll have to call the Jan Jelinek curse. That is, even if the record is a not-bad reproduction of what they played tonight, I may not recognize it given the lack of lyrics, hooks, or anything traditionally memorable in a pop sense.