April’s live musical options in the bay area are huge. Due to the sheer numbers of acts coming to town, mostly due to bands coming through because of Coachella. It means that you can be in twenty places at once in any given night this month. On the evening that I opted to see GIVERS, I decided based on putting five different gigs in a hat, and picking one at random. This brought me to Slim’s on a spring Sunday evening, and it very well could have been my best decision.
LA’s White Arrows opened the show. They have an interesting sound- kind of a funky, bass heavy take on shoegaze. The rhythm section was completely locked in, while the rest of the band added textures to the groove. Although the band seemed to lack a bit of stage presence, and had a hard time getting the crowd going, they definitely had some good ideas. By the end of their set, the played a song called “The Woods,” where they upped the levels on the vocals and ended up sounding like a real pop group.
GIVERS are the type of band that represent pure, unadulterated fun. They opened with the steady groove of “In My Eyes,” getting the crowd warmed up. It was the perfect opening number- not too slow, not too fast. It was if they were simply getting the crowd acquainted with the music. They slowly turned the energy up with “I Saw You First,” only to bring the crowd to a full throttle ecstatic pogo for “Meantime.”
That’s the wonderful thing about GIVERS- they do pure. blissful, danceable music. They fuse together elements of klezmer, afrobeat, reggae, punk, and pure pop music that turns each live show into a high energy dance party. The set highlighted the higher energy tracks from In Light, with a handful of other pieces- we got a medley of Talking Heads covers, which were 100% faithful. We experienced a new song called “Be Near.” This song began with singer/drummer/ukelele player Tiffany Lamson by her lonesome, singing a delicate ballad on the uke. The song kicked into a huge funk number, punctuated by Nick Stephan’s saxophone. Our set closer was another unreleased track called “Wanna Want It.” This song shies away from the band’s usual “perky” sound, cranking up the guitars, turning into a noisy bout of rock n roll chaos.
GIVERS are one of the finest new live acts out there, consistently putting together a high energy performance. It would be foolish to ignore them.
Setlist:
In My Eyes
I Saw You First
Meantime
Atlantic
Girlfriend Is Better -> This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
Be Near
Ceiling Of Plankton
Wanna Want It
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