Dirty Beaches and Xiu Xiu with Father Murphy
8:00pm
Like Bo Didley or minimalist synth provocateurs Suicide, Dirty Beaches’ compositions are not so much stripped down as refined to their essence. Drum loops entrance, Alex Zhang Hungtai’s croon enchants, and the yearning melodies draped overtop belie as much a sense of haunting mystery as they do romanticism and wry humor. This is music for locomotive travel, for racing your weary motorcycle through neon archways and into dusky tunnels.
Over the past decade,Xiu Xiu’s avant-pop project has continued to evolve, incorporating new influences such a choral music, kraut rock and animal field recordings into dark brilliance on their 2012 album Always, produced by Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier. Jamie Stewart’s fearless lyrics that give voice to life’s most untouchable and taboo subjects, while his distinctively committed but hushed vocals crystallize and medicate their unsettling impact.
Enigmatic Italian trio Father Murphy open with a palette of ritualistic sounds.