Live Show: The Watson Twins and Tim Fite @ The Mercury Lounge

–This review is soon to be cross-posted at the soon-to-be-launched www.music-news.com USA site.–

Black and white. North and South. Fast and Slow. The Watson Twins and Tim Fite. Polar opposites are everywhere we look, but one special pairing appeared at New York City’s Mercury Lounge Wednesday night. On the opening leg of a tour together, these two groups took the stage separately, providing two completely different takes on musical genre.

The Watson Tiwns were up first and drew the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in the few shows I’ve attended at the Mercury. (In fact, it was the only time I had to wait in a line to get into the notably small venue.) Much of the large crowd came to know the Watson Twins from their 2006 album Rabbit Fur Coat, a collaboration with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis. Though I don’t recall any tunes from that album being played, the identical twins from Kentucky did not disappoint. Like I’m sure many other fans there, I was expecting most of the songs to reflect the country ballad feel of the album that launched them to indie fame. Surprisingly, many of their songs had a little rock ‘n’ roll infused in them. At times, there was even a near psychedelic sound that would almost creep its way in. But the ladies struck a solid chord with some of those country tunes.

One that stood out in particular was the best track from their recent album, Fire Songs, “How Am I To Be?”. This reflective love tune marked the apex of the show, and the night for that matter. Because despite the charming job the twins did switching instruments between tunes (to the point it was hard to tell Chandra from Leigh), their following act was about to take the stage.

I had heard minimal Tim Fite before the show, but mostly enjoyed those songs that had graced my hears. Fite has a knack for finding a catchy way of laying out a tune. I had also heard that he was the anti-corporate hero of the indie rock world. His tunes were allegedly supposed to demonstrate a home-grown spontaneity that bucked the big business trends of the modern age. Unfortunately, the only thing Fite represents is an anarchistic incantation of meaninglessness. The songs he played this night portrayed random imagery that was aided by a video projection behind him, which was controlled by his DJ (whose chosen name for the night was DJ Fuck Puppet). The video images of him singing that he harmonized against were a mild novelty worth noting, but could not support the absolute absurdity happening onstage. Rather than use metaphors like Bob Dylan or straight-forward driving lyrics like rapper Nas, Fite goes for an amped up burlesque style open mic night. Wearing the vest and tie of the corporate cats he rails against, he jammed over many different styles: hip-hop, blues, and mid-90s rock, but none of them quite found a coherent stride whatsoever. By shows end, most had left. Had Fite been billed as the novelty act he was rather than an anti-corporate icon or had been advertised as a performance artist of sorts, I may have left this show alone completely.

But, alas, Fite did not fail to disappoint. His uncontrolled intensity came across as arrogant and apathetic at times. DJ Fuck Puppet only amplified these annoyances by taking long breaks to drink water while he sang or wander the crowd, yelling incoherence into his microphone.

As the saying goes, opposites attract. Sometimes they shouldn’t.

MP3: Modest Mouse-Polar Opposites

MP3: The Watson Twins-How Am I To Be?

MP3: Tim Fite-45 Remedies

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