the XX/Warpaint, September 22 at the Palladium

I got the XXs' debut album because there was all sorts of talk about it and I wanted to see what the big deal was about. I thought it was a little sleepy at first but after listening to it (a lot) more I really got into it and got more out of it upon each listen, the mark of the best albums. I had caught a little of them at Coachella but knew that that venue was the wrong place for them, as well as the wrong time of day (you know, when the sun was out). Andrew and Rick were planning to go to this show so I got a ticket too. (Sometimes I follow but if it's about finding something new and good then I don't mind at all.) I wouldn’t have thought that that band would fill up the Palladium (or, much less, the Fonda or the Wiltern a few months before) but they did it. I also never would have thought that they would have the crowd they did: I thought they were a buzz band, something for hipsters, but the median age there was probably half of mine. The band members are young but does that translate to having a young audience too? Not that it matters (except for being the old guy in the crowd that we used to make fun of years ago). The show itself was fairly predictable, the band doing a run-through of the album, which is short enough, making for a fairly short show, though no more could be expected from a young just starting out who drew the card for a great album and a lot of acclaim. On their next tour they'll have more material and make a better showing at doing a proper headlining show. A lot of wearing black, a lot of dim mood-lighting, never playing with more volume or energy than you could get from the album -- nothing wrong with that but certainly no surprises. Warpaint opened. They’re a local band (though they've gone well beyond that in the time since) and they’d played around a lot but somehow I constantly missed them. They were tight and professional, more cool than cold, though either could have worked, featuring layers upon layers of low-key distortion, but they showed that they could easily be headlining that stage before too long. And they'll do it when they have more than an hour of material to fill it with.

The XX’s set-list:
"Intro"
"Crystalised"
"Heart Skipped A Beat"
"Basic Space"
"Fantasy"
"Shelter"
"Teardrops" (Womack & Womack cover)
"VCR"
"Islands"
"Night Time"
"Infinity"

"Stars"