Denmark’s Raveonettes have been pretty hyped, with media around town listing them as a rather hot band to see live as they toured Oz. These assumptions were fair enough, though only to a degree; as The Ravonettes droned through their set of mesmerising, yet eventually repetitive tunes. The band is renowned for its repetitively driving electric guitars and dark sound. While this helps them stand out from the crowd, there’s a point were using the same creative devices again and again becomes a little tiresome.
Before the Demark duo hit the stage, local act The Black Ryder delivered their similarly dark styling to a very responsive crowd of early-comers. The duo differed from the headliners, because instead of simply having the two or three on stage, they employed the skills of numerous musicians to give them a hand – resulting in six bodies seemingly crowding the stage. Whilst the sound of their dark rock was more than appropriate to get the crowd in the mood, the drowned vocals seemed a little wasted. Even on the slow tracks when only the two main members graced the stage, Aimee Nash could still hardly be heard. With key basslines and driving guitar, they sounded pretty tight and were greatly credited by the headliners later on.
The great thing about The Raveonettes is that they force themselves – most of the time – to have songs that don’t exceed three minutes. The bad thing is that many of their songs have a constant droning sound that causes them to sound quite the same. Take, for instance, the band’s first LP Chain Gang of Love, upon which nearly every was in the key of B flat major. Once you add these two factors together, it’s hard to tell whether the first three or four opening tracks were great or not. They sounded great, and the short, no-bullshit approach meant that the songs came in perfect progression. At the same time, though, if they’d joined the songs together with a guitar break or the like, there would be many not actually spotting the new tunes.
Standing out immediately as The Raveonettes came out was their deceptively simplistic stage set-up. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo each appeared with Fender guitars, and percussion was situated at the back consisting of a tom and a snare. Whilst this seemed like little, guitar effects riddled the entire set, not to mention the constant electronic variation with the percussion. Add to this the sampler producing bass among many other things, and one could have believed the trio on stage was constantly changing instruments.
The songs themselves were providing more than obvious comparisons to the influences of the band, and the Suicide track played throughout the Hi Fi Bar before the band came out acted as a reminder of where the Raveonettes’ noise pop influence is from. Such noise pop tracks, which often included the sliding of entire hands over guitars for distortion effects, seemed almost like replicas of the industrial sound of their ‘70s influence. Watching the duo create the various distortions on their guitars was really entertaining though, as each effect was spot-on. The surf rock of Hallucinations and the closing track Aly, Walk With Me (the only track that could be considered epic), showed good examples of such effects and of the Suicide influence.
When they weren’t experimenting about, The Raveonettes delivered more direct rock and roll tracks. That Great Love Sound and You Want The Candy were straight-up, upbeat rock tracks that lifted the near gloom of the Suicide-inspired sound. Overall, there still didn’t seem to be enough of these ‘fun’ tunes. One which was added, however, could have had the Everly Brothers’ All I Have To Do Is Dream sung right over the top of it. Additionally, the vocal harmonies were tight and all too reminiscent of the Everly Brothers. Whilst the vocals sounded incredible, they too became a little tiring several songs in, as the duo used the same techniques again and again. The band has never denied the strong inclusion of their influences in their songs, but there were moments where you thought they were thieving entirely. Luckily though, they may be one of very few bands “thieving” that particular sound today.
The Raveonettes are still making music on their latest record Lust Lust Lust that doesn’t sound like anyone else on the rock scene today. The duo knows how to deliver their dark drone rock so that it sounds as incredible live as it does on the record. However, the problems lie in the diversity of their tracks as a whole. Only a very carefully chosen Raveonettes set-list would resolve this issue.
