I mentioned to someone yesterday that I was really excited about a show later, and they said to me, “You’re going to see those Omaha tap-dancing cuties, aren’t you?”
He knew about this because his friend’s girlfriend was “making him” go to the show. Pshhh. How does that not sound like a good time?
“Tilly and The Wall! You bet.”
They’re touring with Team Love label-mates Capgun Coup and were joined with local A Weather (also on Team Love) last night at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge.
A Weather was pleasant and absolutely lovely.
It could have been because I was nearly face-to-face with the monitors, but sound ruined what I thought should have been an awesome show from Capgun Coup. The guitar levels were too high and I spent most of the show with a finger in one ear and a grimace on my face. They’re a cool band nonetheless and I recommend them. But moving on to the tap-dancing cuties…
I wish I had pictures of their tap shoes, which I spent a lot of time looking at. Jamie is their main tap-dancer - though no longer their main percussionist, as they have added a drummer to the mix - so she was in the back on a large box. Singers Neely and Kianna use their feet more like tambourine than a drum kit so they were on smaller boxes and were wearing customized blingin’ and flowery taps, respectively.
They played about half new songs, including Urgency and Chandelier Lake, both of which can be downloaded from Daytrotter. They also played their new single, Beat Control, which is not your standard Tilly and maybe is not even a very good song (or video) but live it kept the party going. The newer stuff has the same energy as the old stuff. It wasn’t the kind of show where people get really excited about the songs they know and kind of pout or are bored or whatever during those they don’t. The songs I didn’t know just gave me a break from shouting while I continued to stomp and clap along. (My left ring finger is injured from clapping so emphatically against the ring on my right hand all night. Kick ass.)
The show was pretty satisfying by itself…but then they came back. I would’ve paid my 14.50 just to see the encore. Crowd favorite Lost Girls, followed by Reckless and Nights of the Living Dead from Wild Like Children. A crescendo of “I wanna fuck it up…I wanna fuck it up…and I feel so alive and I feel so alive and I feel…” and it’s over.
Tilly and the Wall are more than their shtick. If you get a chance, go see them and be ready to let the beat control you…and take off your rings.
Sat 03.08.08 Omaha, NE Waiting Room w/ Family Radio
Sun 03.16.08 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn w/ Capgun Coup
Mon 03.17.08 Carrboro, NC Local 506 w/ Capgun Coup, Midtown Dickens
Tue 03.18.08 Washington, DC Rock N Roll Hotel w/ Capgun Coup, Pash
Wed 03.19.08 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church w/ Capgun Coup
Fri 03.21.08 New York, NY Knitting Factory w/ Capgun Coup, Jason Anderson
Sat 03.22.08 Boston, MA Middle East (downstairs) w/ Capgun Coup, Jason Anderson
Mon 03.24.08 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop w/ Capgun Coup
Tue 03.25.08 Chicago, IL Subterranean w/ Capgun Coup, Skybox
Sun 06.08.08 Lawrence, KS Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival
9 Comments »
i’d be ok with the tap dancing if they didn’t sound like shit.
what are you people even talking about? sound like shit? jazz hands? i’m pretty sure you’re thinking of the tap dancing crackhead out in front of your 7-11, and not Tilly and the Wall. i highly suggest you both suspend the snark until you see them live.
i admit the notion of a tapdancer instead of a drummer seems odd and even a bit gimmicky, until you see it done on stage in front of you; a skilled tapper on the box puts their percussionist to shame - as proven by a mid-show solo-off. and i frankly think that anthemic songs about gender queer street kids is pretty fresh.
as a band, they come together way better with the energy of a crowd than their studio efforts would show, and that’s what eventually sold me on Tilly and the Wall, a fun live act. which, in my opinion, should be how all bands are.
PS: i sat through the whole show, not one single “jazz hand”
Well, having a single jazz hand would be kind of useless. What would the other hand be doing? You’d have the one hand being all happy and needing ritalin and jazzy, then the other hand just hanging there, not joining in the fun, all depressed. You gotta have the double with the jazz hands.
Anyway, tap dancing aside, I’m not really a fan either.
if you like tap dancing, fine. but that really is the exact opposite of what i consider to be “fun” as a live act. it would make me feel like zach galifianakis on the set of ‘ellen’.
AWKWARD.
well, i can’t fault you for feelin’ weird. just realize it’s not like fred astair onstage with a couple of shoegazers, the tapper is just another member of the whole band, and stays in back on her soapbox the whole time.
at least it’s not like those dudes who tap for cash bumping R. Kelly on the sidewalk.
I have a confession to make.
I found Tilly and the Wall completely infectious live.
And i must point out that they came on stage and played after some horrible douchebag acoustic guitarist who pandered to his obviously liberal audience by playing a half-assed “Bush and the war suck” song that made me want to rip his eyes out, so i was REALLY ready to unleash on a goddamn happy-sappy bright pop band with a goddamn tap dancer.
And yet, i really dug them. I sort of doubt i’d see them again, but i had a lot of fun.
Me! And i hate almost everything from Omaha!
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Comment by amber — March 6, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
i never understood this band. no offense.
the radio station i dj for is booking them for our annual outdoor fest, and i’m kinda upset about it. but perhaps they will tap dance into my heart.
but i doubt it. my heart doesn’t support tap shoes and jazz hands.