Line-up

Headliner
Blonde Redhead Last time in Buenos Aires: 13 years ago

Venue

C Complejo Art Media

Av Corrientes 6271, Buenos Aires, Argentina

www.facebook.com/ccomplejoartmedia/

Capacity: 4,000

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Blonde Redhead biography

Diverse and creative indie-rockers from New York City, US, Blonde Redhead have been intriguing audiences since 1993, blending no wave, dream pop and shoegaze to create their eclectic sound.

Italian born brothers Amedeo (guitar) and Simone (drums/vocals) Pace moved to New York City after earning Bachelor's degrees in jazz, where upon the two met Kazu Makino (vocals/guitar), an art student, randomly at an Italian restaurant, deciding to form a band shortly after. Maki Takahashi joined as a bassist. Their caustic art rock soon gathered attention from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley. With Shelley acting as producer, their self-titled debut album was released on his label, Smell Like Records. Takahashi left the band shortly after, with Blonde Redhead continuing as a trio, releasing a second album, "La Mia Vita Violenta" in the same year.

For their next release, "Fake Can Be Just as Good," they were joined by Unwound's bassist, Vern Rumsey, who was a guest on the album. In their following releases, they scaled back their sound to just guitars and vocals, with "In an Expression of the Inexpressible," "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" and "Melodie Citronique" released between 1998 and 2000. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi assisted in the production of these albums, as well as lending his vocals to "Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2." Folowing and accident where Makino was trampled by a horse, a few years were taken for recovery. But In 2004, they had signed with 4AD, and returned to making music, coming out with "Misery is a Butterfly."

Whilst they had scaled back their sound, their music became increasingly more influenced by electronica. Their following releases continued with this developing sound, incorporated delicate textures of dream pop, making for a less chaotic listen. 2007's "23" and 2010's "Penny Sparkle" were a success, with several songs featured on television soundtracks. The band also wrote and recorded 15 tracks for the soundtrack of the film "The Dungeon Masters" in 2010.

Live reviews

Blonde Redhead have been going for 21 years. That’s pretty remarkable if you ask me. There’s definitely a strain in their music that harks back to the days of Sonic Youth and No Wave, although by now they certainly have their own sound, call it Alt Rock, Dream Pop, Nu-Gaze… Onstage at The Pageant they seemed a bit distant or detached. I’m told that they certainly have changed their stage presence since earlier days, but there’s still not a lot of interaction on their behalf with the audience. Not that it bothers me, their music is interesting and captivating enough without resorting to any stage antics. They’re a seasoned group, by all means, but it’s still great to hear a band sound so tight together - brothers Simone and Amadeo Pace, who are on drum/vocal and guitar duties respectively, lay down some pumping, syncopated beats, over which Kazu Makino’s ethereal voice drifts. Great sound too. Throughout the evening they play songs from their extensive back catalogue, but it’s perhaps the songs from ’23’ that gather the most enthusiastic crowd response. All the same, Blonde Redhead are totally adored by the crowd, who cheer when Kazu Mikano goes to the mic and says, in a slightly awkward way, “I feel… at home?”. There’s a lot of energy and passion in their music, along with the dream-like quality that pervades nearly all their songs, but more than anything else there’s an overarching feeling of mellowness, which is delightful.

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