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Tropical punks Abe Vigoda stop in Denver tonight, discuss their love of Women and The Smell
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Abe Vigoda in LA at their second home, The Smell. Photo by Sarah Cass.
I stumbled across Abe Vigoda some time last year when I was knee-deep in HEALTH-mania. These two bands are not necessarily comparable, but they have both come up quite successfully through the LA-scene based around the lovable DIY venue, The Smell. Along with Health, No Age, Mika Miko, and a ton of other cool bands, Abe Vigoda has made a fleshy imprint with their rattled and twitchy sound.
Channeling the bareness of Wire, the manic energy of Gang of Four, and the acid trip dreaminess of Sonic Youth, Abe Vigoda make summer songs for black sand beaches, their Cali state of mind coming through in tufts of crisp and distorted noise. Their songs are curt and burst at the seams with multi-vocal howling and the mind-blowing power of drummer Reggie Guerrero, while riding dissonant waves of a simple guitar/bass structure.
Abe Vigoda comes through Denver tonight via Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, sharing an excitingly diverse bill with headliner and remix-master DIPLO, Brooklyn trippers Telepathe, UK DJ Boy 8-Bit. I caught five questions with Vigoda’s very sweet spokesman, Juan Velazquez, via email early last week:
Bree Davies: You guys have been touring quite a bit. What was your best show of the last few months? And your worst?
Juan Velazquez: For sure the best show of the last few months was a couple weeks ago when we played with Ponytail and High Places at The Smell. It was the night before we left on tour. The line-up was rad and the show was so fun! It left us with a really great feeling about LA, right as we are leaving on this insane tour.
The worst show...it’s hard to say, but I was really not into our show in Montreal or Toronto on this tour. We played these huge places and the crowd was not very responsive. Mainly it was the Toronto show, because we were playing a full-on dance venue, and it was insane. Luckily, we usually have really great shows, and try to stay positive!
BD: How did this tour with DIPLO materialize? How has the tour been so far?
JV: Wes (Pentz, DIPLO), asked our booking agent, and it sort of just happened. This tour has been cool, but a lot different than our usual touring. We’re on a bus and things are sort of taken care of for us, which is cool. But we are playing to a very different crowd than usual, which makes it harder. Shows kind of feel like we have to win the audience over or something...and it doesn’t always happen. But hanging out with the other bands on the tour has been rad. Seeing Telepathe play every night is really amazing! They are one of our favorite bands.
BD: How do you feel about the massive amounts of attention The Smell has gotten in the last year (as it's your home venue of sorts)?
JV: I think it’s cool. Some people might think with all of the press about The Smell that things are going to fall apart or change. I don’t think that’s the case at all. I just think it’s rad that more people will know about The Smell and come out to see shows.
BD: What are you guys listening to right now?
JV: I’ve been listening a lot to early Stereolab and NEU! I’m also into some early 90's alterna-bands like the Swirlies and stuff. Not sure what everyone else is into right now (ha ha ha.)
BD: Any band you've seen/played with recently that you think the world should know about?
JV: Yes! On our last tour with No Age, we played in Calgary (without No Age) but with this band Women. They played right before us and they were amazing! Their record (Women) is great and just got re-released on Jagajaguwar. Women are rad and everyone should check them out!
DIPLO with Abe Vigoda, Telepathe and Boy 8-Bit
Tonight, October 27th, 2008
Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom Denver
$20
Abe Vigoda live::
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