Vampire Weekend – “I Think UR a Contra:”

Death Cab for Cutie: “Marching Bands of Manhattan:”

When we got to the show we were bummed about the fact that Letron‘s set was just ending, but the last few minutes of it that we saw were pretty great. It’s too bad that we didn’t get to see more of Letron other than some brief dancing and to notice that she was wearing a Laker’s jersey (the LA Laker’s played in an NBA finals game on the night of the show). But hey, there’s always next time, right? Letron’s sound was vibrant and playful yet had some fairly raw beats. In case you’re wondering, raw beats are a good thing. Ah, the sweet contrasts in life always tend to have an appeal to human nature. Since we couldn’t get any photos of Letron from the show, here are a couple from her Myspace page. What do you know? She has performed with Machinedrum and Addiquit!

Letron:

Letron, Addiquit and Machinedrum:

We did, however, manage to see all of Jonathan Denmark‘s set, which did anything but disappoint. In fact, Jonathan Denmark put on an excellent show that far exceeded expectations. We weren’t really sure what to expect actually since we hadn’t seen Denmark live at all, but if you live in the LA area–or wherever Denmark happens to be touring–you should go out and show love for sure. His performance was animated, peppered with little sarcastic and funny comments in between songs, and just well-done overall. We were kept totally engaged the entire time.

Also of note, Benji Kay of the band LOVE is a STORY made an appearance and performed with Denmark for one song, which was awesome because Kay had a real-time autotune effect on his voice. Hey, yes, it’s very T-Pain, which Denmark and Kay stated outright. However, for as much as people like to make fun of T-Pain and make a big joke about autotuning, we secretly love it. Except when Cher used it in her track “Believe:” weren’t feeling that so much, although the song was catchy. Cher’s “Believe,” had a nice message and was catchy and all, but it was always definitely bad if you were unfortunate enough to get it stuck in your head.  You know what’s funny though? That song came out in 1998, and it predates the whole autotuner craze by virtue of the simple fact that it’s 11 years old! Okay, so you might be thinking, “Hey, but Daft Punk had autotuner on their early famous track ‘Around the World,’ (1996)” but that autotuning definitely sounds far more robotic and less subtle than what we hear today. By the way, some of the people behind Vimeo.com made a hilarious video about autotuning in the office a few months back.

Check out LOVE is a STORY in iTunes by clicking on the image below:

The venue was interesting as well, tucked in a courtyard behind stores like Urban Outfitters with an open sky that gave the area a spacious feel. Plus free Izze Sparkling Juice beverages. That was a nice little touch. All things sparkling are good.

We recorded some video of the show, but unfortunately forgot to bring a real camera: so, all that you get is some iPhone 3g video of the show. The video is surprisingly decent though, considering it was recorded on a phone with nothing to stabilize the image but hands and nothing but a speakerphone mic to pick up the sound. Maybe the iPhone 3g S will be better with video. It’s scheduled for release in less than a week on June 19, 2009 (be excited, you know you are).

Denmark sounded great at the show. The instrumentals and sound system were also spectacular at the venue. Any distortion you hear wasn’t caused by the system but the iPhone speakerphone mic and its inability to handle the truth.

Another thing that turned out really well at the show is the photos that we managed to get our hands on from Photojournalist Jim Stevenson. So, you can actually get to see some clear, aesthetic stills of the event! Stevenson has work published in The Huffington Post and we’re glad that we got the opportunity to connect with him both before and at the show. We also appreciate Stevenson’s permission to use a few of the photos here on the site (all photos with the Hipsterwave logo stamp were taken by Stevenson).