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YΔCHT, Bobby Birdman @ Temporary Spaces 2 10/23/09
Not 24 hours after the Twitterverse was abuzz with YΔCHT's stellar CMJ performance, the Portland, Oregon duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire Evans could be found delivering their manifesto-driven laptop-pop to a sweaty crowd at last night's MFG-curated Discotheque party held at the newly opened Temporary Spaces Two.
The night opened with earnest and adorable Bobby Birdman (and computer) crooning lovely melodies over layered Casio keyboard beats and loops, aiding and abetting the notion that boys in bands are girl-magnets, given the singular gender of his fairly sizable fan club.
At a little past midnight YΔCHT took the stage with a bit of stand-up, letting the crowd know that tonight "would have a lot of talking", a warning that was thrown by the wayside the moment the synth hit the monitors. Channeling Grace Jones' View to A Kill persona (both deadly and fashionable), Evans' lithe, black-clothed frame vogued her way around partner Bechtolt's white-suited air-drumming, as the two frenetic moving targets powered through their new DFA Records release, See Mystery Lights.
Coupled with a seizure-inducing slide show of pulsating black and white triangles, the stark, yet visually jarring stage experience could have been taken from the Eurythmics playbook circa 1983, had Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart had a penchant for meth. Naturally, the crowd ate up every pose, pogo, and pop-hook in a mass frenzy usually reserved for a basement Matt and Kim show, making the night a free-for-all to be remembered.
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