LIVE REVIEWS

Au Revoir Simone @ The Troubador, Los Angeles, CA.

By: Gian Erguiza - February, 2008

Three ladies on three keyboards with drum machines......Yes! My associates and I were fairly excited to see this spectacle live since we heard from a few friends of ours that they rocked hard at Coachella last year so now, here we are. We needed to see it for ourselves, we're better judges.

The rain was coming down pretty good for most of the day. Streets were flooded and there was debris everywhere from the storm that passed through the night before. We actually almost never made it to this show due to those facts but just like true music soldiers, we trumped on through.

The Troubador is a nice place to see bands for it's nice sound system and nice acoustics. I've seen a lot of bands here and suffice to say, some of them were saved by the sound system. I've seen up n comers before they hit bigtime like Tiger Army, In This Moment, Five Finger Death Punch, and System of a Down.

As soon as we got in, the vibe was quite alright. You've got a definite mixture of hipsters, rockers, and trendy hollywood. Then this voice starts blaring out of the speakers and damn it hurt my ear. This girl was way off key. She must not have nice friends cause she totally looked like she thought she was rocking out. Well, she wasn't. The instruments were off key, her voice was terribly off key, her piano playing was ok and the songs were unbearably annoying. I didn't even bother to ask arond what people thought cause I can see it on their face, no one was impressed whatsoever and they were truly wasting their time. Although the girls voice was offle, I'll give it to her that she's got the spirit, dancing around freely, hyping up the crowd, and making good contact with the crowd. But other than that, this band was offle, really bad, like a high school band without feeling nor thought put into the music. My sentiment about the band.....Please get off the stage.

Finally it was time for Au Revoir Simone. I didn't see any other bands before nor after but ARS is what my associates and I came for so here we go. The keyboard and drum machines were setup and the three ladies stepped up on the plate with much love from the crowd coming from the cheers and clapping.

Au Revoir Simone did not waste any time. They introduced themselves and then sent us all off into keyboard heaven. Now I'd hate to admit that I only knew a couple of songs from Au Revoir Simone but the one that caught my attention when I heard it for the first time was "Sad Song." "Sad Song" was the first song and it truly just rocked! Man it sounded so ethereal like a lullaby made by the gods of love and happiness. the blending of the three women's voice was absolutely fantastic! They were completely at one with each other and their instruments. I'm going to take a stab at this but I think it's Heather. She sported a beautiful sassy dress with black heels and just had these sweet dance moves that made me just adore her. I mean she was fully into the music and looked like she was just having the time of her life! I loved it! "A Violent Yet Flammable World," was also another song highlight for the night and really struck a chord with the crowd. It sent the full house into a trance and it was great! The intro keyboard riff for that song is so infectious and unforgettable, it's still stuck in my head as I'm writing this. "Dark Halls," also just sounded magnificent and got the crowd jumping and dancing. Overall, the ladies of Au Revoir Simone were fantastic. Great stage presence, great songs, and great lyrics equals great musicians with a vision. With the lack of talent in music today, Au Revoir Simone is a definite breath of fresh air. Thanks for the good times ladies, when's the next show?

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