Live Review: Au Revoir Simone at Bowery Ballroom [1.18.08]

Before I knew anything about Au Revoir Simone, a friend described them as “pretty bitches with keyboards.” This description, though succinct, is more encompassing than one might think. The girls of ARS, Erika Forster, Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo, are certainly pretty, with their identically long, pin-straight hair that falls effortlessly over their three vintage keyboards, and their gamine, patterned-stocking-clad legs poised at the pedals underneath. Their prettiness is, of course, the only thing that makes them bitches, and the fact that they are an all keyboard band is what distinguishes their sound from the sea of cutesy electro-indie-pop. But despite the girlishness of their image, which is portrayed, for example, by a music video depicting them melancholically baking cookies and then having a dance party, they are by no means worth writing off as superficial confections themselves. Their three-tiered melodies are skillfully constructed; these girls are serious about their keyboards, and it shows.


After waiting until almost midnight for them to go on at Bowery Ballroom on Friday, and after a particularly long and harrowing week, I wondered if my mood would color my experience too much to write an objective review. But when they finally opened with the dancey, ironically angsty “Sad Song,” I was reluctantly charmed. Their aesthetic had caused me to expect the sort of removed aloofness typical of whispery indie-pop girls, but the Brooklyn natives were humbled and thrilled to be playing at Bowery, especially Hart, who blurted out, “Honestly I can’t believe that I’m here right now. I’ve seen some of my favorite concerts here.” Even during an awkward pause when Forster fumbled with her misbehaving keyboard, Hart admitted that her “cheeks hurt from smiling” and asked if anyone brought their own tambourine. For a brief, bashful moment, I’d almost wished I had.


While Hart was perhaps the most enthusiastic, dancing and even jumping around without missing a note, all three girls seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves, as they played what they announced to be “the dance portion” of their set, which was never really followed by a “non-dance” portion. Almost their entire repertoire is mildly dancey, mildly poignant, never quite resigning to either extreme. Even ballads like “Stay Golden” had some people bopping.

Their entire set, incidentally, was only about forty-five minutes long, to the chagrin of an audience that had been waiting patiently since the doors opened at 8:30. After a short period of applause they returned and launched into a sugary cover of “Oh, You Pretty Things”, and then invited opener April March and a slew of backstage friends to join them in the finale-appropriate “The Lucky One”, a song that ends in a Polyphonic Spree-esque, choral love fest, repeatedly chanting “Let the sunshine in.” Watching ARS singing along with their beaming, shaggy-haired entourage, I half expected the performance to morph into a revival of Hair.

I guessed that the brevity of their set had to do with their late beginning, but I found myself wondering if ARS could sustain a longer set. Throughout the show, the audience was packed, but distracted, bustling around the bar, taking breaks to lounge downstairs, chatting even during the quieter songs. While their all-keyboard concept creates a sound that takes girly charms and synths and makes it three times as layered and enveloping, it’s possible that their body of work lacks the variation to make for a full-length show that is dynamic and exciting throughout. And although their performance had been engaging enough to pull me out of my sleepy, end-of-the-week funk, perhaps their music is just a little too Sunday morning for a Friday night.



[Photos by Sean O'Kane]