If you haven’t heard of the xx, please do yourself a favor and download their music now. The band, comprised of Romy Madley Croft (vocals/guitar), Oliver Sim (vocals/bass), and Jamie Smith (keyboards), could be easily classified as make-out music for hipsters, but such a simple description sells them short. As their debut album xx (2009, Young Turks) was recorded before all members reached their twenties, it does bleed the navel-gazing, deeply romantic aspects of late adolescent relationships, but it also acts as a pitch perfect nighttime misty city soundtrack. (Go ahead, walk around listening to it on your earbuds at night and see what I mean).
As their music seems primed for the more intimate channel of headphones, I was slightly skeptical to see if it would translate well live. However, as soon as they arrived on stage, those young British whippersnappers most definitely knew how to gauge their songs for performance and did so masterfully through creative lighting (very dark and moody, of course) and through the hushed, breathy traded male-female vocals that are their trademark.
Zola Jesus was little more than even darker lighting and a female singer with a Florence + the Machine-like voice moaning and writhing around the stage. Warpaint, however, succeeded in any opening band’s goal: to sell their music to an unknowing (and usually unwilling) audience. The all-female art rock band wowed with their hypnotic harmonies and spellbinding, yet subdued stage presence.
This fall tour was the last in support of their debut album, as the xx is set to begin work on their sophomore effort soon. So unfortunately, you won’t have any opportunities to see them until then, but that does give you time to listen to their album (over and over again, as it should be enjoyed).
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
