Veils and Comas @ Spaceland, 6/29/07

The Veils courtesy of Akzoe

So I went to see The Veils play with The Comas last Friday at Spaceland. I have been an Echo-show-goer so much more lately that I didn't even know (or forgot) that Spaceland removed that first middle wall, which cut back on available seats, but made the whole place seem a lot bigger. Asher went on first and their sound reminded me a little bit of Keane, but unfortunately without the soaring vocals, and with less interesting songwriting. It seems one or two people have also thought of the name before...

My friend was enamored of New Zealand's Veils, who were definitely good, but I thought The Comas were pretty fun. Having heard some buzz about them touring with Great Northern, my interest was already piqued, but I also thought they might have a similar sound - turns out aside from male/female vocals, they don't. They are a whole lot more rocking, and fun to watch, what with badass female guitarist Nicole Gehweiler. (I just like how her style is a bit more Chrissie Hynde in the midst of the currently popular no-style, plain-jane girl bassists. ...Who are still actually cool.) My favorite song in the set was "Red Microphones", which is on their myspace.

The Veils were up next and they have a great look - singer Finn Andrews sports the Stuart Murdoch (and Michael Stipe?) hat, and they do have one of the aforementioned girl bassists, Sophia Burn, but she wears her bass so low, she comes off pretty punk rock. The music is a bit darker and blues-ier, with an occasional hint of The Hold Steady; Andrews' vocals alternate between wobbly with emotion a la Arcade Fire, and gritty with a howling quality. I quite like "Jesus For The Jugular" which exhibits the latter vocal style, and "Calliope" for the other.

I suspect that even though I enjoyed The Comas more live, The Veils' album Nux Vomica is probably more likely to gradually sneak up on me and attach itself, and soon I'll start driving around listening to it, brooding and ruminating and stuff like that.

Check out the video for "Calliope" on the website.

Good-looking band, man