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Nuptial Rock Kicks Ass

I just came home from a stunning performance by Viva Voce, a Portland wife-'n'-husband/husband 'n' wife rock duo who fucking blew the roof off of the Ash St. Saloon for those select music lovers who stayed after the punk rawk performance by Mr. Lady gender politicians The Quails (who seemed like cool, likeable, and talented people whose music didn't connect with me emotionally). I showed up full of curiosity about how the Robinsons were going to translate their intricately arranged recordings into a duo live performance, but they conquered this problem with seamless aplomb. Anita played a scorching lead electric guitar and sang alternatingly seductive and soft-spokenly spiritual lead vocals on most songs, while Kevin blazed away on balls-out drums, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, sung and shouted backup (and occasionally lead) vocals, and even played one of those mouth organs like we all saw in the Hooters's "And She Danced" video back in the 80s on MTV. I frankly couldn't believe what I was hearing half the time was coming from two people; a couple of times during the performance I felt like my heart was cracking to the exquisite vibrations of the air in this skank-ass, booze-soaked saloon. While some of the backing instruments were prerecored, the most critical part of the music was live and vital and sweaty and didn't feel trapped in a technological box or slavishly metronomed to the augmentations of the prerecorded orchestral fluorishes. The heart of the music was in the live voices, guitars, and drums, but occasionally a Mellotron flute line would come in from nowhere and truly kick me in the ass. The musical virtuosity of the spectacle was impressive to say the least: I personally have never before seen someone sing a duet while playing a bass drum with his foot and a sparkling synthesizer line with his hand all at the same time, but the uniqueness of this arrangement didn't feel like a showman's stunt, as everything was grounded in the emotional core of the tender love songs (V.V. records on Amore!phonics, a wholly appropriate choice of names for this band). In closing, I'm not going to kid myself into thinking my endorsement of this band is going to have a whole lot of effect on anyone but myself, but if you're reading this please go to this band's website and click on the "Viva Radio" link. This launches a Flash window that will allow you to listen to their complete second album. The tracks I suggest you absolutely must check out for starters are "Fashionably Lonely" and "Red D-Lish." "Wrecking Ball" is a wonderful straight-out rocker, as well. If you have an ear and a heart and a taste for intelligent, emotionally potent rock music, you won't regret it.