High Places at The Echo (1/22/2009)

Last Thursday, I went to The Echo to “experience” High Places, because I shamefully missed their show at UCLA. The venue was almost full on that night. As soon as the opening band put their keyboards away, the duo restlessly started installing their “magic table” with bunch of effecters, mixers, and drum machines on it. Whole audience was waiting for the duo to let them dance. As the Robbie started making noise, kids in the front row began to wave themselves. He was playing some kind of Akai product. As Mary’s voice came in, the audience started melting. The kids were already dazed. I was bit annoyed since I was in the second row. They played most of the songs from the latest self-titled album which was released from Thrill Jockey last September. Surprisingly enough, at the show they reproduced their experimental/improvisy sounds as in the record almost accurately. Though their sound seems coming from computers on the CD, they were actually “performing”. Their sound of “tropical IDM” was totally worth experiencing. It was such a great show.

http://www.myspace.com/hellohighplaces

-Dan Shimizu