Like a Rhinestone Preacher

Harrington is a master of audience encounter; at one point he shoved the mike into his crotch so fans could sing happily into the bulge. The encore, though, blew everyone away. Local rockers the Mars Volta joined Les Savy Fav, singing backup, playing bass, beating on the drums. Audience members danced wildly onstage, and an ecstatic couple in the front row took over on vocals while rock-pirate Harrington scaled the rigging and disappeared into the lights. (Nathan Ihara)

BUFFALO DAUGHTER
at the Troubadour, May 4

Buffalo Daughter slipped just once during their set -- on a new song called "5 Minutes" -- but the gaffe offered a respite from the barrage of backdrop images and forced guitarist Sugar and turntablist Moog into chummy banter and a real interaction with the audience that loosened up all of us for the better. To kick off the night, Moog had opened up the landing gear with a blast like a THX promo -- a fitting intro, since the focal point was not the Japanese trio (and their auxiliary drummer) but the two-screen background that, although seamlessly synced with the set list, unfortunately turned the crowd away from the sound and lethargically toward the accompanying projected videos. Sure, visuals are used to appeal to audiences, but here it was gratuitous eye candy. With eyes closed the pictures were much better than the done-to-death flashing pupils and nuclear blasts on the screens. Once behind your eyelids, you noticed how vibratingly heavy the bass bottom was, then maybe you heard faintly chirping aviary atmospherics or Steve Reichian marimba layers coming apart.

If the visuals were there to aid Buffalo Daughter, they didn't need them. They've got a solid front woman in Sugar, an angel voice in Yumiko and all the gray matter any art band needs in Moog. "Discotheque Du Paradis" grated on a 2001: A Space Odyssey riff, which melted into a Donna Summer "I Feel Love" Taser-gun beat. A segue between songs borrowed a bass motif from "White Lines" then dropped it again, lasting just long enough to catch the ear of a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing dude at the bar (who promptly did the pushing-the-ceiling dance.) Is Buffalo Daughter breaking down the mainstream barrier? If they keep up the MTV aesthetics they might pull it off. (Wendy Gilmartin)