October 6th, 2008 3:00pm

Tongue Kiss Through The Kitchen Screen

Stereolab @ Irving Plaza 10/3/2008
Percolator / Neon Beanbag / Eye of the Volcano / Mountain / Chemical Chords / Valley Hi! / Ping Pong / Double Rocker / Ecstatic Static / Lo Boob Oscillator / Two-Finger Symphony / Three Women / French Disko / Cybele’s Reverie / John Cage Bubblegum // Silver Sands / The Emergency Kisses / Stomach Worm

Stereolab “Neon Beanbag” – When you think about Stereolab, your first associations are probably “keyboards,” and then probably “vocals sung in French.” If you’re more familiar, maybe you think about Tim Gane’s penchant for vamping on chords. All of those are certainly crucial to the band’s identity, but the aspect of the band that comes most into focus in concert is the drumming. Andy Ramsey, who has been with the band since the Transient Random Noise-Bursts era, is a remarkable player who has not always been well-served by the mixes found on the groop’s studio recordings. Ramsey lays down his beats with impressive power and ease, which allows the band to come off as far more urgent and danceable in concert, but without sacrificing the elegance of Gane’s compositions, or drowning out Laetitia Sadier’s delicate vocal performances.

This was a solid show in general, but there were a few particularly exceptional performances. The band compensated for a lack of horns on “Three Women” by shifting the arrangement slightly to place a greater emphasis on the Motown-esque quality of the drums, yielding a terrific result. The ending of “Lo Boob Oscillator” extended into a mesmerizing drone paired with a steady beat, resulting in something quite sublime. Similarly, “Stomach Worm” shifted into a long, seemingly improvised instrumental section that eventually returned to the main theme before closing out the concert. (Click here to buy it from Amazon, and here to download Stereolab’s concert at Irving Plaza one night previous on NYC Taper.)

Shudder To Think @ Webster Hall 10/4/2008
Red House / Shake Your Halo Down / Hit Liquor <—- I missed these songs, got there late! / Love Catastrophe / Lies About The Sky / Jade-Dust Eyes / The Man Who Rolls / Gang of $ / She Wears He-Harem / Rag / Pebbles / 9 Fingers On You / No Rm. 9, Kentucky / Call of the Playground / Chocolate / X-French Tee Shirt / About Three Dreams // Earthquakes Come Home / The Ballad of Maxwell Demon / Day Ditty

Shudder To Think “No Rm. 9, Kentucky” – You know, for a reunion concert, this show didn’t feel like that much of an event. There were definitely people who were excited, and some people who’d get extremely passionate about particular songs — some guys in their mid-30s totally flipping out for “About Three Dreams,” for example — but the vibe was generally quite mellow and casual, as if Shudder To Think played shows all the time. In fairness, the band certainly came off that way, and kept the mood low-key and humble. It should come as no surprise that the selections from their masterpiece Pony Express Record ended up being the best thing about the show. Though their early Dischord material has its charm, the PER compositions are the band at their most inspired and distinct. “Gang of $” and “9 Fingers On You” are campy, madcap spins on punk rave-ups, and “Earthquakes Come Home” and “X-French Tee Shirt” skew stadium-sized hooks in ways that feel slightly alien without being counter-intuitive. “No Rm. 9, Kentucky” may be the band’s strangest composition, but it’s also the one that was most stunning in concert, shifting from gorgeous to ominous and back again with a fragile grace. (Click here to buy it from Amazon’s MP3 store.)