This write up is a bit delayed, due to the week long photo extravaganza that was Primary Flight 2010, so I apologize for that.
I’ve been enjoying The Books‘ older album, “The Lemon of Pink” for a while now. The duo of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong added another guitarist to help fill out the sound on this tour. They reside in that weird experimental pop genre (folktronica, according to Wikipedia) that I absolutely adore, but have found that not many others do. On second thought, there must be a good amount of us, judging by the capacity crowd at the Music Box to see The Books’ visual stunner of a show.
After listening to them on KCRW the same morning, I was really excited to see them live. They surpassed all my expectations, syncing up their set with an amazing set of bizarre videos they’ve collected over the years. I always love it when a band uses their live performance as a medium for visual art, much like Jonsi from Sigur Ros. I don’t understand why more bands don’t harness art and technology to flesh out their music in a live setting. It can only add to the experience.
Unfortunately The Books just wrapped up their US tour, so unless you’re in Australia, you’ll have to wait a bit to catch them. In the meantime, grab their latest release, “The Way Out.”
