Day 21, A Song that is Best Heard Live: “Confetti”
As it happens, my spouse and I were just reminiscing recently about several of the bands we’ve seen together over the years, and Cold Cave—who we saw open for the Kills in Dallas about five years ago—was a standout memory. I don’t know that this video really does their performance justice, and anyway the one documented here was apparently outside during the day while we saw them inside a medium-sized venue at night. What really stood out in the show that we saw was the sheer volume of it. And not just loudness, but the maximalism of the sound (especially coming from just three people, though of course they were also employing some pre-programmed synths to help out). The experience was augmented by the guy hopping around and headbanging stage left, who is none other than Dominick Fernow (of Prurient). In between songs, to keep the set seamless, he unleashed piercing squalls of noise from his synth that I think really puzzled much of the crowd, who were most likely just there for the Kills’ bluesy alterna-rock. Cold Cave pushed every song they played to 11 and forced you to love them or hate them, and I loved them. So while I don’t know if, honestly, I’d go as far as to say this song is “best” heard live (it sounds pretty good on the album too), hearing it live was a powerful experience.
Thaumagraph 