Concert review: We Shot JR presents Neon Indian, Vulgar Fashion, and Kashioboy at Rubber Gloves

Vega’s Alan Palomo busted the live cherry of his much-ballyhooed side project, Neon Indian, Wednesday at Rubber Gloves; it being that I’m making an effort to find out what the kids are listening to these days, I decided I must be in attendance.  The show was sponsored by local blog We Shot JR, which made me full of blogger-solidarity warm fuzzies, so I made the trek up to Denton to see what this Neon Indian thing was all about.  If nothing else, I figured I could tell all my friends that I am well on my way to becoming cool, because this past Wednesday, Rubber Gloves was where all the cool people were at.

Neon Indian's Alan Palomo: adorably shy

Alan Palomo has been getting tons of press of late, not least because of Vega’s drama-filled Crystal Castles entanglement.  As is befitting a buzz band of this stature, the Denton glitterati were out in force for this show.  The music blogosphere was well-represented by Nick from Superbligged84 and the lovely ladies of Denton Deluxe, as well as We Shot JR (I wanted to finally meet StonedRanger, but I don’t know what he (she?) looks like, so I was kinda lost).  Promoter/Denton music fixture Josha Flores came by to say hi, rocking the military jacket and Ghoultown facial hair.  Apparently, everyone who was anyone was at that show.  As my own coolness factor is still a work in progress, I barely knew anyone and felt slightly out of place at first, but by the end of the show, I was having a great time bopping along to the electronic pop yumminess.

The venue was packed by the time Kashioboy went on.  Kashioboy, aka Chris, plays dance-y electropop with assists from old-school video game equipment such as a Super NES and a Game Boy.  Chris’ inventive mashups of video game noises set to thumping dance beats got the Wednesday night crowd tapping their toes, although the audience probably would’ve danced to anything at that point – the equipment-related cancellation of openers Darktown Strutters left the crowd a bit antsy, despite the capable DJing provided by Time Bandits.

The crowd really started rocking out when electronic-rock wizard Vulgar Fashion took the stage.  Now, I love a visual band, and Vulgar Fashion didn’t disappoint, with video projections and light shows (all the pretty people dancing up front didn’t hurt either).  I’m not sure what the Vulgar Fashion guy’s name is, but he rocked the electronics like few artists I’ve seen, working himself – and the crowd – into a lather by the end of his set.  This was the furthest thing from the usual laptop-deathmatch live mixing.  I was vastly impressed – I hadn’t heard of them (him?) before the show, but according to the (minimal, lazy) research I’ve done, Vulgar Fashion is also quite the buzz act, a title that is richly deserved.

By the time Neon Indian took the stage, it was after 1 AM, and I was exhausted.  I didn’t stay for their entire set, but I stayed long enough to get a feel for their sound.  If you lived through the ’80s, this isn’t anything you haven’t heard before, but Palomo and his beautiful bandmates (the guitar player looks exactly like Belgian model Anouck Lepere; the drummer was a classic teen-girl wet dream, down to the shiny, floppy hair) brought a freshness and attitude that I liked a lot.  The second song in their set sounded strikingly similar to Robbie Dupree’s ’80s soft-rock hit “Steal Away”, which made me giggle.  They didn’t look entirely comfortable onstage, which is completely understandable considering that a) this was their first live show, and b) the equipment gods haven’t been very nice to them lately.  I’m looking forward to seeing them blossom – Palomo is becoming quite the young auteur.

All in all, it was a show worth going to, despite the prohibitive drive.  It was only six bucks to get in; beer was cheap; and I got to see a super buzzworthy show that, although it didn’t completely blow me away, was pretty damn cool.  That said, your gift for today is Neon Indian’s effects-soaked track “Deadbeat Summer”.  Listen away, then tell your friends you are now way more hip than them because you know things about this band.  Hell, if it works for me…