Concert Review: Strange Names Give You Data At Baby’s All Right
You can pretty much sum up a Strange Names concert in this giphy:
It is a vibrant, colorful spectacle where music feels as tangible and shiny as glitter being thrown over you. Celebrating the record release of their newest album, Data, Strange Names were all smiles as they sang their odes to the most technologically connected generation ever: MILLENNIALS!
Instagrams posted, tweets tweeted, and snaps chatted as Strange Names unwrapped their new album like a child tearing open their new bike. They were giddy through tracks “People To Go”, “Medicate”, and “UFO”, of which each song uses humor and inventiveness to address how trivial we have made ourselves. While, politically, the world seems apocalyptic, Strange Names have created an album that shows our societal regressions were a long time coming because, frankly, human beings are vain. What better place to celebrate the delusion and euphoria of human vanity then in a concert hall, Baby’s All Right, where people can put forth the most glamorous version of themselves over their more grounded one.
THERE IS NO JUDGEMENT HERE! Why not glam it up? Yet, Data discusses the consistency from which we want to filter our life through prettier frames, in exchange, for actually making it beautiful. From “Into Me” to “Circles”, we try to impress each other while, secretly, depressing ourselves, and seeing three guys happily embrace this behavior is hilarious, fun, and sparklingly dreamy. They are incredibly aware of the “concert hall/ club” as a personal encourager of escapism, but also a quiet confrontation as to why an individual wants to escape at all? In perspective, escape means an urgent leaving of something dark, to which their flashing lights of royal neons made you want to stay in Strange Names’ atmosphere like you were briefly living in a high-caliber, eighties music video.You danced to tracks “Marvelous” and “Keep Walking Away” as if they were pages from a Bible made with confetti and rainbows; there was something both sacred and sassy to their sound. Such a combo makes sense when you see Liam Benzvi peruse through the stage as if he was the club owner.
Benzvi approaches the stage with an indescribable pizzazz. He is self-assured, but joyous as he sings his songs like a voice wind-surfing through a melody; sunnily, fluidly, and with agility. He feels as if Mr. Gatsby and friends went to Studio 54, which only made Strange Names appear cooler as they sonically questioned how society define “cool”. It was a rich irony that they turned golden through melodies that were unabashedly gregarious and meant to represent the era that inspired them: the 80’s. For More Information On Strange Names Click Here.
