Word about TV on the Radio playing the Fonda was out a couple months before the show. Most of the wise folks knew it would sell out quick. Even the addition of the second date didn’t keep tix for both shows from being sold out a month in advance. On top of TVotR headlining, The Noisettes, one of my favorite new bands I heard while at SXSW in 2006, were opening up.
Matthias and Timothy were both shooting this night and as I stood milling around the back of the theater it hit me that, since I was there early and excited to see The Noisettes, I should make my way to the front of the crowd since there was plenty of room. It proved to be a wise decision. Shoniwa, the lead singer and multi-instrumentalist is one of the best front women around. She approached the mic wearing shoes and within 15 seconds of starting their set, they both went flying. The rest of the set had her all over the stage and she would regularly position herself with a bare foot on top of a monitor while howling away.
The Nosiettes music is hard to explain. It’s almost a modernized rock version of classic vaudeville or upbeat showtunes. People all around the front were dancing around to “The Count of Monte Christo” and most of their other tracks. It was quite surprising to see so many people moving and even though the theater was prolly only 1/3 full, the applause was equivalent to a packed house.
It didn’t take long for all the empty spaces to fill in and once TVotR took the stage there wasn’t much room to move around. I positioned myself far left on the floor where the sound was good yet the line of site a bit obscured. It didn’t take long for front man Tunde to start sliding across the stage while windmilling his left arm in time with his lyrics. David Sitek, the studio mastermind behind a lot of their sound, was firmly planted in the rear and rapidly strumming his guitar to blanket their tunes in a syrupy wall of sound.
I guess it was just a night when Angelenos came out to dance. The floor was swaying along and you could see dozens of people bopping up and down to the strange yet catching tracks. When they finally broke into their first single from Return to Cookie Mountain, “Wolf Like Me”, the majority of the floor instantly started the largest dance party I’d seen at a show in LA in years. It was one of those rare moments where the people standing still were the ones looking like dorks as opposed to the hyperactive kids up front who are usually the only ones not afraid to strut their stuff.
The best part about TVotR is that they have so much room to grow. They’ve dialed in their own sound and have built up a big enough audience so that they can venture off in whatever direction they choose. Their chemistry and energy on stage is something to see and hopefully when they jump back into the studio again to work on new tracks they’ll channel that energy into their next batch of goodies (ha ha.. get it.. cookie.goodies).
As luck usually has it at the Fonda, the front parking spots were blocked off and we were able to pull Bessita up between the encore and the end of the show to dish out some treats. It was a bit hectic but nothing we couldn’t handle. Eventually we locked her up and headed backstage with some ice cream for whoever was back there. While on our way out I asked Shoniwa if she wanted a treat. She wasn’t much interested in the frozen goods but took a couple stickers and a copy of Off the Wookie. She then gave me a kiss on the cheek.
While I was in the audience watching the Noisettes I was reminded of what it was like to be young and going to shows and being up front and jumping around. A kiss on the cheek from the beautiful Shoniwa brought back that giddy teenage feeling again. The moral of the story here is: Never stop going to shows. Because you never know when there’s going to some new band out there that’ll restore your faith in rock n’ roll.
