Not just another three girl band, not just another chill wave band, Au Revoir Simone and Little Daylight came to Boston when everyone else left and were the whimsical missing cherry on top of your melancholic Independence day weekend.

The day after Independence day in Allston, Massachusetts has to be one of the most undesirable places to be right? The city has a creepy ghost town feeling as if everyone just emptied out. Everyone of course except for the 50 or so people that wandered into the Brighton Music Hall to check out a bill of indie pop bands that  all seemed to wander up from New York .  The cape, the islands, the lakes; this where I should be right?  Fuck that shit, I’m in the city to check out Au Revoir Simone; a band I first caught wind of in the winter listening to an interview they did on Sirius XMU.  The show was put on by Wildfox, Nylon Magazine and Fenway Recording Sessions but you would have hardly known that because they had almost no presence and the gig seemed to be a promotional gig for the bands who are all returning to Boston in the fall.

First off, thumbs down for Brighton Music Hall for starting this show so early. I’m trying to make a night out of this and it seems like they were purposely trying to wrap shit up early. I don’t care what day it is. It’s still a Saturday night, if you’re going to put your headliner on at 9:45 that’s just weak and blatant.  For that reason I missed the acts and extend my apologies to The Lower 48 and DJ Carbo for not being included in this review.

With that being said, Little Daylight was a huge surprise. Unheard of before the show, the only notes I had were that they had recently been signed to Capital Records and had a new record coming out in two weeks. I don’t care what planet you’re from or what era we live in, that’s still got to be a pretty big deal and says to me that someone important thinks they’re great, and they were. This band fits right in with all that’s going on in indy-electro pop and they do it really well. They have all the necessary ingredients to make a move towards a mainstream audience and completely won over the 40-50 people that were scattered across the room. The four piece was fronted by a little starlet that has great stage charisma that reminds you of a cross between Lykki Li and the girl from Chvches. Throw in the synth and the guitarist who switches back and forth between his axe and that tribal trashcan snare drum sound and you got the makings for a successful pop band coming soon to the VH1 countdown.

Then came Au Revoir Simone, the dreamy synth-pop chic bangs trio from Brooklyn. I was a little nervous about seeing a band absent of drums but hey they got a drum machine; it got people moving and it worked out just fine. The girls exchanged flat vocal leads on different songs and harmonized well together as they worked their way through a set that spanned their about a half decade of material. Despite their history its an act that still feels new. Their voices are remarkably similar but they refuse to show off any sort of range and you never got to see all three of them work together on the harmonies, take different parts or isolate them. This seems like a big missed opportunity, but their unified melancholic approach towards the trendy dance-pop is what makes them original and unique. They seemed happy enough to be on stage but if there was any sort excitement they seem to hold it back on purpose. That’s their thing that keeps their bleak and simple aesthetics in check I guess. Most of their songs never cross a threshold that would define them as anything else but a great chill wave band, except for their break out college radio hits “Somebody Who” and the encore “Shadows”. Overall, Au Revoir Simone is a simple yet cool futuristic throw-back that warps you back to your favorite childhood 80’s soundtrack. Their set swayed like the straight faced dancers in a Robert Palmer video and they pull it off with catchy dance hooks and simple keyboard and vocal melodies that they twist it in a way that is all their own. Their set was short but pleasing and if they continue writing catchy hooks and explore the possibilities of their three part vocal attack they will definitely be around for some time to give that other three girl band some competition.