All along Lower Greenville in Dallas on Saturday night, scores of empty beer cans and piles of trash dotted the sidewalks where green-clad revelers had been just a few hours earlier. The annual St. Patrick's Parade brought thousands of partiers to the neighborhood and, as night fell, Dallas' favorite fun-time area felt like Bourbon Street the morning after.
But Sleigh Bells, the noise-pop outfit from Brooklyn, had no intentions of allowing the night to slink off quietly. With eight massive Marshall amps packed onto the stage in four stacks of two, guitarist Derek Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss, joined by an additional guitarist, blistered through a catalog-spanning set with the fervor of party hounds just beginning to get their buzz on. The concert was sponsored in part by GuideLive.
There's an almost predictable formula to most Sleigh Bells songs, but that's not a knock against them.
The boisterous nature of the music -- and the spirit with which it's delivered -- is quite a thrill.
And because of Sleigh Bell's unique combination of ingredients, we shouldn't put its music into a tidy little corner.
The savory and sweet combination of Miller's arena-rock shredding, Krauss's confectionery vocals and the duo's ocean-sized beats manage to simultaneously live in the worlds of pop, rock, indie, dance and probably many more. In certain cases, especially with the night's rowdiest tunes, "Bitter Rivals" and "Infinity Guitar," (the song that sparked a lawsuit against Demi Lovato for copyright infringement), Krauss offered a menacing cadence more akin to hip-hop than to most of what you'll hear on cubicle-ready pop radio.
Pulling numbers from each of its four albums, the group kept the pace high as strobe lights vibrated into the dancing and jumping crowd. Krauss, strutting with enthusiastic authority, proved why she's such a magnetic lead. At one point, she jumped onto the crowded theater floor mid-song and crowd-surfed her way back onto the stage.
Though last year's Jessica Rabbit album is a fine example, the loudest greetings were saved for the older songs that put the group on the map. "Tell 'Em," and "Kids," from the breakthrough 2011 Treats LP, and "Comeback Kid," from 2012's Reign of Terror, seemed to have the Granada Theater's historic walls ready to crumble from the electricity on stage and the energy in the crowd.
There was a moment or two where the hair-metal theatrics were quelled a tad: "I Can Only Stare," one of the standout tracks from that latest record, gave the set a (very) slightly slowed down dance break. But it was just that: a breath-catching break. "It's Just Us," also from Jessica Rabbit, and "Minnie" from Bitter Rivals kept the beats blaring.
For the encore, Krauss brought on Tunde Olaniran, the soulful, bass-loving opening act whose earlier set was as much performance art as simple concert.
