Other acts include Berlin’s Soda Plains, Sad Boys producer Yung Sherman, experimental producer Darko, and the rising star Felicita make this line-up too.
Vivian Girls have risen from the buzz of their Brooklyn scene days, playing rooms and pubs to hardcore fans, to becoming the subject of Vice adulation and gossip column derision in as little as four years. From their first 2008 self-titled debut to their third album Share the Joy, they’ve lost two drummers already, most recently Ali Koehler to Best Coast. They’ve generated several blogverse scandals for speaking their minds in interviews and left a trail of unanswered questions in their wake. It seems that’s the price to pay for packing out venues like London’s XOYO with adoring new fans from all the way across the Atlantic; all manner of snappily dressed urban adults line up from an 8pm opening to ensure a good spot front of stage.
Cassie Ramone @ XOYO yesterday (photos by eduardo dk)
It’s nice to see though, that while the most recent album has abandoned some of Vivian Girls’ famed frenetic energy for a more nuanced approach to song writing, their live performances are just as charmingly agitated as ever. Looking like they’d rolled out of bed in other people’s dresses, the two lead singers’ floral patterns obscure only part of their tattoo-covered arms, while they’re sweet-as-pie vocals melt down the raucous edge of their garage past. Core member and bassist Katy ‘Kickball’ Goodman –red bangs and personal charisma intact –raises her beer to the crowd and beckons them to clap along to her tambourine in ‘Dance (If You Wanna)’. Continue reading Vivifying
