In my day, I’ve seen relatively few electro-pop bands that have managed to occupy that perfect middle ground between energetic live band and lone performer twiddling knobs/staring at a laptop onstage (see: New Order, Cut Copy). My feeling is that it’s not as easy as it looks to mesh pre-recorded beats with live instrumentation in a way that’s seamless and convincing, especially in a live setting. At any rate, I can now add Caribou to the list of bands that manage to walk that tightrope with both style and finesse. While many of the songs on Swim are hazy affairs shot through with echoes of house music, they take on a new urgency live, with all four members of Caribou’s live incarnation working in tandem to nudge things along toward the nearest climax. It helps that they don’t just do the two drummers thing for the sake of spectacle but rather, manage do it well—we’re talking cascading rolls across the two drumkits, etc. Do make an effort to see them if they’re coming to your town but in lieu of that, check out my photos from Monday night’s show over at DCist.
