As the instrumental debutantes behind the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack for Little Miss Sunshine, I felt privileged to see DeVotchKa in the living-room-sized Viper Room. While the band’s musical presence has successfully translated to larger stages and festivals, my experience was marked by intimacy.
After meeting up with Jeremiah and Vanessa, their friend Mark pointed out that the band was offering USB memory sticks of the concert at $20 a pop. Although it had the band’s name branded on the side of the memory stick, the fee did not coincide with my my budget. But as the show got started, it became one that would be preserved in my live music history.
DeVotchka seemed to emerge from an ancient tavern. The Denver four-piece elicited a worldly and sophisticated poise that was suited to their music. When Slavic and Bolero serenades blend with mariachi triumph at the unlikely crossroads of folk and punk structure, therein was the evening’s stunning band. And from the Russian word for “young girl”, the band’s derivative name brought context to the tragic earnestness of their sound.
It was a unique pleasure to closely observe the mastery of each member with their instruments. The stamina in which the sousaphone player maintained was impressive, her instrument decorated in a blue string of lights, pillowing our ears with soft bass tones. As the violinist bowed and plucked with intricate intensity, he did so with a stolid face, taking over the organ and accordion with the same removed professionalism. As a mild contrast, the drummer glanced at his band mates affectionately, pleased to leave the drum set and take up the trumpet or accordion. In addition to Nick Urata’s calling as an evocative crooner, he would occasionally retreat from his guitar to toy with the theremin to produce haunting sounds. There were multiple times in the show that people clapped along to take part in the experience.
As DeVotchka was once upon a time the backing band for a burlesque show, the inherent romanticism and mischievousness of their music was acutely enhanced by their light show – ranging from erratic blue and white lights for menacing, gothic tracks to warm, shifting reds and yellows for poignant ballads like “How It Ends”. It was all so simplistic, yet colorful and immaculately timed. Melodies became engrossing with the aid of lightwork, proving to be as crucial of a contributor to the experience as a band member.
DeVotchKa is characterized by it’s ability to conjure both the celebratory and the despondent – I think both men and females alike felt like a little girl that night.
