Concert Review: The Vacant Lots Smash Through Sunnyvale’s Walls
Noise is a strange thing to love. Music is noise, and some genres/artists are noisier than others. Yet, if music is meant to represent the human spirit then it is befitting that some are harsher in sound while others soft. What that choice says about you, in listen and action, is what The Vacant Lots displayed in their Sunnyvale show.
“Just two wild and crazy guys!” is the famous SNL quote that blasted into my mind as The Vacant Lots sang and broke their instruments over electro-psychedelic noise Not only do these two musicians plays as if their chords and keys were only meant to last a night, they actually smash them so that they do not got beyond the venue. When Jared Artaud pummeled his guitar unto the floor and wall, the crowd went wild at seeing the classic “I am fulfilled move” that so many rockers have done before. It may seem like a “gimmick”, but it works because it represent something we all wish we could do. Most of us spend more time at our workplaces than our beds, which is what we, occasionally, dream of tossing our desk and burning every pen, computer, printer, and paper clip in sight. In that instant, represented all of us, and solidified The Vacant Lots as show for those that wish they could toss their life aside and pick up a new one. Tracks like “Night Nurse”, “Pleasure & Pain”, and “Empty Space” serve this notion on a silver platter, and reminded me of the Fruits & Flowers show, which had a different dynamic but similar theme; when you cannot feel like life gets better than you get used to it getting worse … and start feeding the notion.Jared Artaud & Brian MacFadyen’s voice are saccharinely slitting. Their vocals slice through notes and lyrics like paper-cuts unto skin trying to understand how the smallest of details/desires can reverberate like a forest fire. Having such a giant, human dilemma as their music source made Sunnyvale’ s small, blue stage feel purgatorial. Hence, they were two wild and crazy guys trying to decipher why everyone else was not in their same state. After all, this world is in a deep limbo.
Limbo feels like an oddly safe place because it does not call for you to have the strength to rise to Heaven, and does not ask you to have the viciousness to got hell. Yet, The Vacant Lots disrupt the safety of your limbo by showing its boredom. Through buzzed, mind-tripping instrumentals they clips your “in the middle” fantasies to show that, for many, it is better to have a good dream or a bad nightmare than no visions. For More Information The Vacant Lots Click Here.
