Building a Dreamhouse in Allston
By EMMA DESSAU | February 7, 2012
WORD Sadie Dupuis's lyrics are worth digging out from beneath Speedy Ortiz's catchy, noisy rock. |
The kickoff weekend of new local show bookers the Dreamhouse Collective was coming to a close a week ago last Monday night at Great Scott, but the walls of the Allston venue were still vibrating thanks to the grungy guitar reverb of Northamptom trio Speedy Ortiz.Singer Sadie Dupuis's voice snarled perfectly while she delivered lines like, "If all my friends wanna cut me into bits/They should throw me on the skillet/Make a dinner out of what they get," from the song "Cutco" — a standout track from her November EP, The Death of Speedy Ortiz. Guitarist Matt Robidoux managed to rip apart the first few songs of the set even with a broken amp, then switched out quickly with the help of the other bands on the bill: the Craters, Slothbear, and King Cop.
"We're working on putting out a longer release with the full band, hopefully by the summer," Sadie told me after the show,shivering outside the venue in just a T-shirt. "The first releases were just home demos with me playing all the instruments." Her lyrics — often creepy, sometimes grotesque, but always poignant — are worth digging out from beneath Speedy Ortiz's catchy, noisy rock. It makes sense that she moved up from New York to the band's current base in Northampton this September to earn her MFA in poetry at UMass.
Speedy Ortiz's formidable live setup came together from the remains of three stellar bands that all recently met their untimely demise: drummer Mike Falcone played in Connecticut's Ovlov, Robidoux was part of Northampton's Graph, and Dupuis headed up Brooklyn's Quilty. "Quilty had played shows with both those bands and I stayed pals with those dudes afterwards," Sadie explained. "All our bands were breaking up around the same time, so it seemed fortuitousto play together." ^
Related:
Review: Magnetic Fields at the Wilbur Theatre, Photos: One Night in Boston 2010, Changing rooms, More
- Review: Magnetic Fields at the Wilbur Theatre
“Similarly, here’s another song about miserable death,” Stephen Merritt drolly informed us between songs.
- Photos: One Night in Boston 2010
STUFF Magazine presents photos taken in Boston's streets over nine hours on the night of August 22, 2010; here are a few of our favorites
- Changing rooms
The only big difference between the Carolina Chocolate Drops' show at the Paradise Saturday night and the one at the Somerville Theatre back in January was the venue.
- Young Adults emerge from Allston apartments
Last month, when scraggly local trio Young Adults wandered out on stage at the Middle East downstairs to open for hyped lo-fi darlings Best Coast, college indie brats were already thronging the room.
- Photos: Linkin Park at the TD Garden
Linkin Park perform live at the TD Banknorth Garden on February 1, 2011.
- Arctic Monkeys escape the pitfalls of buzz
Three for three with critically acclaimed #1 albums in their native UK. Top spots in countries around the world with each release. Early hype for their forthcoming Suck It and See (Domino). That's a pretty good track record.
- OUT: Ribs shine through a strobe in Allston, kick off East Coast tour
Whereas most bands nurse hangovers on Saturday mornings, the dudes in Ribs spent the one before their tour kickoff party at Home Depot, wandering the tall aisles of suburban fix-it wonderland in search of multi-colored floodlights and thin, four-foot-long fluorescent bulbs.
- Dancing to life's desire lines with Lykke Li
You already love Lykke Li. You may not know that you do, exactly.
- Out: Golden Girls show us their Wormhole at O'Brien's Pub
May 13 brought a promising line-up to O'Brien's Pub in Allston: Boston avant-pop artist Birthdays and Worcester fuzz-punks Golden Girls.
- Out: Never mind the rapture, here's Pretty & Nice
There's a sense of calculated jubilation in Pretty & Nice's frantic brand of caffeinated pop, one that's a bit paranoid, a bit euphoric, and always on the verge of spinning out of control.
- Dengue Fever add eccentricity to psych pop
For all the kitsch and B-movie flair of Dengue Fever, there are still a few aspects of their obsession with Cambodian pop that they haven't put on record.
- Less
Topics:
Live Reviews
, Music, Allston, live reviews, More
, Music, Allston, live reviews, music features, Speedy Ortiz, Speedy Ortiz, Less