After the masked and suspendored band members had broken through the fabric finish line of their set and screamed their name, the first words out of my mouth were, “Holy Fucking Shit”.

I haven’t been knocked on my ass by a band like that in a long time (Aside from the equally high-waisted Janelle Monae, I’d be embarrassed to tell you whom else). Did I say band? I think that as of right now, that term is no longer relevant. As of tonight I don’t think I ever want to be in another band ever again.

Echo Park’s We Are The World opened the show tonight at The Viper Room and instantly won over the WeHo/Echo hybrid crowd with their blend of throbbing electronic beats, performance art intensity and high energy choreography. Yes, choreography. The hats came straight from Fosse, the bold graphic lycra masks from Grace Jones, the vocals strong and striking like Laurie Anderson or Annie Lennox. Aesthetically, they are like The Locust for theater students. A few in the audience came with an idea of what to expect and the rest of the crowd will probably need a bit of time to absorb what they’ve seen tonight. I’m not sure I know myself, but I want more.

The 4-piece WATW’s Live Setup is largely backing tracks playing through a Mac connected to midi drumpads. The lead singer was masked as she commanded the stage and had piercingly beautiful eyes. The drumming was tight and made creative use of the palette of live sounds available to the band’s sole instrumentalist. The Two backing vocalists/dancers were in constant, voracious motion and altogether it was like watching an engine move in precision.

We Are The World get a 9.5/10. Avant garde and brilliant, this is the line that art shares with  music.

Thanks to the Viper Room for the guest access. Add them to your Twitter @ twitter.com/TheViperRoom

Tags: Echo Park, The Locust, The Viper Room, We Are The World, WeHo

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 2:55 am and is filed under Hollywood, Images, Los Angeles, You should know:. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.