lucy hamblin

West Indian Girl “All My Friends”

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West Indian Girl is easily one of the most multi-dimensional, tuneful and challenging bands to emerge on the pop rock scene over the past couple of years. Last year’s 4th & Wall was cinematic with its sweeping sonic tapestries as the band mixed dance-pop with soaring rock and infused with atmospherics and a searching intelligence. The songs were artfully arranged and dared you to think,  dream, rumble and your shake your ass. On stage at the Troubadour, the songs were even more vivid and bold. The six piece band brought texture and sweep to their musical interplay. They are led by the intertwining vocals of guitarist Robert James and Mariqueen Maandig, who complemented each other beautifully as they swayed and careened over the rich, spacious songs. The layered keyboards and steady, often funky percussion (buoyed by Francis Ten’s ringing bass) underlined this terrific vocal dynamic. Maandig is a small, beautiful woman with a huge majestic voice and at first it a bit jarring to see such a great range come out of such a little lady but you just can’t get enough of her. Pay really close attention to her. They played almost all of the record and included a thoroughly rearranged cover of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm” to thrilling effect. Virtually everything worked here including the minimal but intoxicating video visuals. Unfortunately, they added an acoustic encore that let the air and energy out of the room. Remember less is indeed more most times. WIG has gone mostly unnoticed nationally, but if they bring this explosive show to the masses and radio gets a clue, they won’t be denied. Dios opened with a ponderous, virtually shapeless set, that masked some of their song smarts. Too much of the set simply blurred together and was too discursive without reaching peaks or developing momentum. No doubt the short time frame diluted their power but this was also an incredibly lackluster visual performance. When the entire band sits down, well, no one is asking for Prince but I wonder how the DJ avoided “Get Up, Stand Up” between sets.

– Ken Capobianco