Do: Check out Headlights if you’re into jangly, upbeat, keyboard-infused rock. I’d heard about this Illinois quintet but had never heard them until today. They live up to all the compliments; lovely female vocals with a Feist(y) feel are complimented by softer male backups.
The Headlights play two or three shows a day for the rest of the week. Check out the band’s MySpace page for a full list.
Don’t: See YACHT. Apparently, everyone at Emo’s was impressed by this Portland synth-dance duo, except Lunchbox (my sister, Misty) and me. Watching this group I felt like I had just walked into my sister’s room 10 years ago and caught her and her boyfriend singing terribly along to some song, pretending to be in band, before looking up to realize I was laughing at them.
YACHT has received praise from plenty of hipster high-ups: Pitchfork, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, The Dirty Projectors and even Houston folkster Devendra Banhart, and that's why people like them. They’re good because so and so is cool and he or she thinks they’re cool. I saw people getting down to this watered-down version of I Am The World Trade Center (until now I wasn’t aware IATWTC could be watered down) or LCD Soundsystem. Lead singer Jona Bechtolt danced around the stage with his female backup singer/dancer, and the crowd went wild even though the beats sounded like something that came standard with any computer-music program and the vocals were off-key and awful. At sound check, Bechtolt told the sound guy to "make sure the beats are louder then the vocals at all times.”
“Now, I know why,” Lunchbox said.
Don’t take my word for it, experience disappointment for yourself. Check out YACHT’s MySpace page for a list of remaining shows.
-- Dusti Rhodes
