By Tim Hinely

 

There's been a lot of press on opening act Abe Vigoda but I had never actually heard a note of their music until tonight at the Holocene. These four young men from Los Angeles with angular haircuts (ok, so only one guy, the singer, had an angular haircut but what an angular haircut it was...think Carlos D., the old bass player from Interpol, or maybe even Mike Score, frontman for A Flock of Seagulls) played a noisy brand of art-rock which didn't do a lot for me personally, but it wasn't necessarily bad. I just didn't hear a lot in the way of songs - whose sound, speaking of Interpol, frequently seemed to fall right in between Interpol and Vampire Weekend.

 

You want good songs? Virginia's Wild Nothing has ‘em in spades. Leader Jack Tatum (named after a particularly vicious Oakland Raiders player from the 70's) took the stage as a 4-piece (on record it is just Jack T.), which included the drummer from Abe Vigoda who played bass here. The group proceeded to play a superb set of jangly, shimmering, mid-tempo pop songs. You hear elements of Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, New Order, Felt (like label mates Beach Fossils), and some Sarah Records stuff too.  Of course they did not play the terrific "Live in Dreams' but we were treated to gems like "Summer Holiday," "Golden Haze,"  "Take Me In,"  "Your Rabbit Feet" and plenty more. The packed house was enjoying every minute of it. Come back soon,

please.