We saw Wye Oak at Chapel Hill's Local 506, this past Saturday. It was sold out, despite the fact that Matt Pond PA was playing two blocks down at the Cats Cradle, at the same time. What a town.

But first, a Baltimore band called Lower Dens played a set. I'd never heard of them before, and as is always the case with opening bands, I had little hope of them being any good. But, I liked them! A lot of what they played reminded me a bit of early 80's stuff like Joy Division, Bauhaus, etc. - droning, minimal drum and bass, guitar as atmosphere, kind of metronomic at times. The singer, with a haircut like a cross between Tank Girl and young Robert Smith, has some vocal licks that remind me a bit of Siouxsie. So, that was all cool.

Then, Wye Oak.

They're a two-piece; he plays drums with his right hand, and keyboards with his left; she plays guitar and sings. And they make a fuckload of noise - a huge, fat, grumbling sound, which was partly her guitar and partly whatever he was using for bass sounds from the keyboard (sounded like a sampled bass, actually). Just gigantic.

They played a lot of songs from their new record, "Civilian" (title track), which came out last week. It's good: a lot of good songs, and couple of things that just haven't clicked with me yet but which were better, live. Their last record, though, "The Knot", is the best thing I've heard in a long time. And, they played a few songs from that, too, which was 100% pure awesome.

All in all, a great show.

This was the second night of Wye Oak's tour, but everybody in both bands was sick with a cold. And despite Wye Oak's singer's plan to beat her's back with whisky, they have ended up canceling their Monday and Tuesday night shows (Atlanta, Memphis). So, unlucky them, but lucky us for catching them before they got too sick. heh.