It's 11:40 p.m. on Saturday night at the 9:30 club, and the backlash against Ghostland Observatory has already begun. A few members of the sold-out crowd have determined that the laser light show that's underway is a bit too intense and have started to make their way toward the exit.
Alienation has been par for the course for the Austin, Texas-based duo. Ever since they released their newest album, "Robotique Majestique," critics have been calling them either the Band of the Year or "hair metal timbral wankery," as online music magazine Pitchfork described them. For most bands, being so polarizing could be frustrating, but not Ghostland Observatory. They came to party. And they brought lasers.
Since forming in 2004, Ghostland Observatory has already released three full-length albums. While the members of Daft Punk have established themselves as the venerable electronica scene kings for years now, Ghostland's debut "delete.delete.i.eat.meat" and follow-up "Paparazzi Lightning" are both worthy of comparisons to the Punks from Paris. And here at the 9:30, Ghostland proved to be a force in their own right.
In a set that can only be described as a full-frontal attack on the senses, front man Aaron Behrens and synthesizer-vocoder Thomas Ross Turner brought out their best efforts. Behrens is a happy, pig-tailed techno mix of Freddie Mercury and Jack Black's character from "School of Rock" who dances around the stage like there is no tomorrow.
Lasers easily qualify as the third member of Ghostland, which at once help and hurt the show. When Behrens and Turner start getting into it, as they did Saturday night during their single "Heavy Heart," they can make anyone wonder how they've ever not lived in a world with laser light shows blasted into their retinas. However, their lasers are so complex and stunning that it's pretty easy to coast while the machines take over for a while, causing the band to occasionally fade into the fog.
But much like the cobra, Ghostland Observatory wasn't sleeping when they were lax - they were just conserving their energy for their next sonic attack. Every lull was followed up with vicious rock, helped in no small part by a crowd that was waiting on pins and needles for Behrens' next move.
"A lot of times you got to marinate a crowd," he said. "But you guys are all barbecued up."
And what about the actual music the crowd was jamming to? It was pretty good, with danceable beats and catchy hooks aplenty. But could the songs hold up without the lasers? Well, some of them. On disc, their music is far more uneven then it is in concert - it's clear that the lesser songs are missing the visual element found in the live show (seriously, you have no idea how many lasers were at this show).
For the good of the band, Ghostland's show was only partially about the music. It was a visual and aural display of two men doing what they love most in the world, and there are few things better than that.
