I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: July 20, 2018] Sleigh Bells

I don’t go to too many shows at the PNC Bank Center.  I usually prefer smaller venues.  But I need to change that for bigger shows.  Here’s why PNC Bank Center is better than say BB&T Pavillion.

Free Parking.

There’s probably more reasons too (the sound was really great, it’s much closer to my house), but wow, that’s awesome.  So the next time an artist I want to see is making the rounds of outdoor arenas, I will make sure to get the PNC date instead of the Camden date.  It’s closer, too.

But I didn’t realize how much closer when I went to this show.  It was on a Friday night and I assumed there would be shore traffic.  So I left very early.  So early that I got there and actually heard the National Anthem.  I didn’t know they even did that.  But it was nice to sit and relax with a book while everyone else milled about.

I don’t know if other venues do this as well, but if a show has not sold well, on the night of the concert you can upgrade your lawn seats for pretty close seats.

I didn’t need to do that because I had amazing seats for this concert.

Sleigh Bells was formed in 2008 by Alexis Krauss and Derek Edward Miller.  They released their first songs in 2010 and I remember thinking that there was nothing else that sounded like them.  I was never entirely sure if I liked them, but they were unique.

They played catchy guitar riffs with poppy verses and choruses but the drums were so maxed out that they always sounded like they were going to break your speakers.  It was a fascinating mix of major pop and abrasive noise.  Some songs, like “Infinity Guitars” seemed to max everything to the red–the guitar riff, the drums even Krauss’ voice made the whole song sound like it was really loud, even if it wasn’t.  But it was really catchy at the same time.

At the time, Alexis had long straight black hair, sharp bangs and kind of a goth look, or at least a very dark look.

So imagine my surprise when she came out on stage with brown curly hair, colorful baggy clothes (that said I love you) and a super happy attitude.  I posted a picture on Instagram and said something about that and how great her voice was and someone told me that as a teenager, she sang lead vocals and played bass in an all-girl pop group called RubyBlue, which recorded two singles and an unreleased album before breaking up.  I also had no idea that she was from Manasquan, New Jersey.   She said she had seen many shows at PNC Bank Center, so this was cool for her.

The front area where I was pretty empty for her show but she didn’t seem to mind.  She got the crowd hopped up, standing up and singing along.  Most of the early birds were there for them, I assume, because people seemed to really know the words.

For this show the band consisted of two guitarists who flanked Alexis.  The drums and every other noise was handles by a woman offstage.  She was right in front of me though so I knew she was doing everything.  It was interesting to me that the “ah ah ah” backing vocals from “Infinity Guitars” were prerecorded.

The two guitars were probably overkill as they both did the same thing pretty much all the time.  But the stage belonged to Krauss.  She jumped around, she sang (beautifully).  She high fived-people up front.  I swear she made eye contact with everyone there.

Despite her attitude, the show was a little monotonous.  The guys didn’t do much, and she can only keep the crowd rolling for so long.  But I found her really sweet and engaging and despite the sun setting in her eyes and it being like 95 degrees, she sang a terrific set.

It was a fun opening set, but probably would have been more fun in a small dark club.

Given that they played the same set for most of the shows, I’m assuming this was the setlist.  Three new songs, three songs from their debut and two others from in between.