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He's My Brother She's My Sister @ The Troubadour, 2/3/11
Robert and Rachel Kolar perform as He's My Brother She's My Sister at The Troubadour on February 3, 2011 (Photo by Ryan Torok / LAist)
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Robert and Rachel Kolar perform as He's My Brother She's My Sister at The Troubadour on February 3, 2011 (Photo by Ryan Torok / LAist)
By Ryan Torok for LAist
Guitarist and vocalist Robert Kolar frowned and shook his head when his sister and band mate, Rachel, who is He's My Brother She's My Sister's other lead vocalist, said into the microphone that he’d played something in the wrong key, but she was smiling when she said it, accusing him like only a sister can.
A familial quality ran throughout their excellent set at the Troubadour club in West Hollywood, consisting of material from the Los Angeles band’s self-titled EP, new tunes, material by Robert’s other group, Lemon Sun and the Mamas and the Papas song, “Straight Shooter.” They ended the show with the popular “Tales That I Tell,” and the audience welcomed Robert’s instruction in leading them in a sing along of the eerily rocking number’s chorus.
The show was smaller than ones the unsigned band has played recently. They toured with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros last October, opening up for the psych-folk group on a month-long tour of the south in large venues, not long after releasing their debut EP. Not long after forming, actually. They came together in East L.A. in 2007, and set themselves apart from other folk-rock groups in Los Angeles with having Lauren Brown, a tap dancer, provide percussion with her feet. Their newest member, celloist Satya Bhabha, who made the band a quartet, missed Thursday’s show, but upright bass player Aaron Robinson substituted, and Oliver Newell and Patrick Joseph appeared as special guests on lap-slide guitar and on a standing drum set.
The music could have been more exploratory and diverse Thursday. They hardly jammed, and Brown switched between tap dancing on a wooden box and actual drums and bongos, and the audience reveled in Rachel’s harmonica playing during “Coattails,” but Robert stuck with the same electric guitar all night despite his abilities on banjo.
There wasn’t much else to criticize though. Even their attempts at jokes were successes. When Robert introduced “How'm I Going to Get Home?” a more upbeat one, saying, “This is something everyone is going to ask themselves later this evening,” the audience understood and became apart of the family.
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Setlist: Clackin Heels, Same Ole Ground, Straight Shooter (Mama & Papa's cover), Touch The Lightening, Wake Your Heart, Lazy Daze, Escape Tonite, Choir Of The Dead, Coattails, How'm I Gonna Get Back Home Tonite, Tales That I Tell
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