“Holy shit! Boston showed up tonight” was the first thing out of Sleigh Bells’ singer Alexis Krauss’ mouth, and she was kind of right. Their Saturday day/night show at the Royale was packed to the gills, and the crowd was the loudest I’ve ever heard at that venue. It was actually kind of jarring how the acoustics mixed with the crowd and gave it an arena sound. It was where you would expect the crowd to continue for as far as the eye could see, but the eye could only see half a basketball court away, the crowd stopping there.
Describing the Brooklyn duo, consisting of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, as noise pop is incredibly accurate. I am not embarrassed to admit, I like Sleigh Bells. Sure their lyrics suck, and have gone through more drum machines than an ‘80s band, but if I want to blow my eardrums out with unintelligible words and repeating guitar riffs, jumping around my room like a 15 year-old (as we all need to do from time to time), Sleigh Bells is my go to. When the group released Treats in 2010, I might have played it non-stop. It is loud and catchy, and still sounds awesome for a running soundtrack. Even after all of this is said, Saturday’s set made me realize that although they have released three albums in the last three years: you have one, you know them all.
The set started out as most commonly do, with a two minute drum introduction as an ode to their school-themed first album (or they just really like drum lines) as the band makes their way onto the stage, followed lastly by Miller decked in both a camo shirt AND camo pants and Krauss wearing a pink and leopard print boxing robe. What a pair. As the set progressed, the band put 110 percent into the performance filled with sweat, loud guitar riffs, making the crowd jump up and down, and both their signature drum/noise machine and a hired live drummer, a first for the band while touring. But hold up: something was bugging. At first I thought it was the seizure inducing light show that turned the house lights on an uncomfortable amount, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t figure it out; I just couldn’t put my finger on it. If only the singer would STFU, and I could figure it out… THAT WAS IT! Anyone listening to Sleigh Bells knows distorted vocals filled with noises, inflections, and so many “uhs” are the band’s signature. But for some reason, live and in-person, Krauss distracted the crowd from the music
and came out sounding like the Memphis Bleek to Jay-Z, silent hype girl Lil Debbie to Kreayshawn, or the Hype Man of all hype men, Flavor Flav to Public Enemy (but not even close to that epic). As much as I hated her for that hour, Krauss’ energy during the whole set was unfailing as she threw herself around stage, thrashed around and somehow mixed Lil Kim style dancing with ballerina spins and interpretive dances.
Make no mistake, while I found the performance on the obnoxious side of the scale, there was an entire venue of people that seemed to disagree with me, so what the fuck do I know. I’ll probably still listen to noisy-ass jams like “Holly,” “Rill Rill,” “Infinity Guitars,” and “Crown on the Ground,” but in the future I’ll do it in my headphones, so that I don’t ruin my eardrums with guitar riffs played on hot pink and leopard print guitars, aren’t tempted to have a seizure in a public place, and save myself the image of seeing the most awkward couple known to man: a drugged out woman-child in a coonskin cap making out with a giant twice her size whose dance moves resemble lunges.
