WASHINGTON, November, 11, 2011 —The most successful live shows are ones where a consistent mood is set throughout the entire night. The mood or theme weaves its way through each of the opening acts and music during intermissions before finally climaxing with the headlining band. When the Sounds took the stage at the Black Cat in Washington, DC, the band was able to take advantage of a perfectly built mood.
The Sounds are a dance pop/rock band from Sweden. When they first started out, they emphasized the rock part of that description but over the years they emphasized their dance leanings more and more, at times almost bordering on club music. The shift has been subtle over the years but has still managed to cause something of a rift with critics and fans alike.
The Black Cat was filled with a rave/club atmosphere as soon as the doors to the main stage were scheduled to open. For the first hour of the show, two DJs kept the crowd in check with an infectious blend of club and techno beats. As the night moved on, the music went from normal DJ fueled club music to an interesting synth/vocals group called Limousine.
It was important for the night’s music to move closer to rock because while they focus on dance pop, the Sounds still use a traditional rock. They use a heavy bass and keyboards to manipulate the sound to point where at times it almost takes the form of disco.
The main focus for this set comes from their latest album Something to Die For, which hammered home their connection to a dance/club sound. The guitar work is noticeably in the background, which is a departure from their earlier work. A wall of sound backs lead singer Maja Ivarsson now, creating the familiar dance beat.
The Black Cat doesn’t normally lend itself to this type of atmosphere. In fact the main stage of the club normally creates its own atmosphere artists have to play towards. With an effective use of darkness and selective use of the lights, the atmosphere was set for what the Sounds attempted to achieve.
The Sounds took the stage in a barrage of interspersed blue lights. The slow build and keyboards of “It’s So Easy,” the same track that leads off Something to Die For, bled into “Dance with the Devil.” The punch from the first two songs set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Even though their sound has changed slightly over the last few years, it didn’t preclude them from including older songs like “Tony and the Beat,” “Ego,” and their first song to make an impression in this country, “Living in America.”
That the Sounds have, in theory, been moving away from the rock oriented sound of their previous albums and embracing a dance flair has been a major sticking point with critics of the band recently. It would seem that they were a rock band who completely diverted their sound into dance/club. This set disproved any of that though.
The Sounds showed an effortless ability to merge songs from their past into the sound they have been playing on the new album. The older songs never felt out of place mixed in with the new ones. There was a great blend of guitar driven rock with the bass and keyboards of the dance and club beat.
Of course none of these concerns matter to the band and it certainly didn’t seem to matter to anyone in the audience. The Sounds credo has always been to keep the audience dancing and dancing is exactly what the crowd was doing with Ivarsson pushing them, in her off beat articulation, to move as much as possible.
The Sounds have never been a complicated band. They’ve always been more concerned with feel and mood rather any severe content. They create an atmosphere where the audience can distance themselves from any worries. It was a notion on full display during their set at the Black Cat.
Stephen Bradley is an avid music listener. Read more of his work in Riffs at the Washington Times Communities.
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