REVIEW: The Sounds rock The Showbox
October 28th, 2009 by travis hay
Maja Ivarrson
by Brittney Bush
Bollay
Maja Ivarrson is a star.
The sexy Swede, who fronts The Sounds, strutted her stuff all
over the Showbox’s stage Tuesday night with a charismatic presence
that demanded your attention not just because of her foxy good
looks but because of her impressive pipes and rock star
prowess.
The Swedish band has already had success stateside having
rocked the main stage of Warped Tour a few years ago and opening
for No Doubt this past summer, so it wasn’t surprising to see them
draw a big crowd. The Sounds are a sometimes synthesized pop-rock
Blondie for the Paramore generation and the kids at last night’s
all-ages affair ate up every second of the band’s 75-minute set. It
was a performance that showed the Sounds as a band primed to
be rocking arenas on their own headlining tour sometime down the
road.
The band’s latest album Crossing The Rubicon expands on
its power pop-rock sound and the songs from that record sounded
great alongside the band’s older material. “No One Sleeps When I’m
Awake” and “Beatbox,” both off Rubicon, were highlights of
the set. The piano ballad “Night After Night” had the crowd singing
the verses louder than Ivarrson and during “Queen of Apology” and
“Hurt You” the kids on the floor pogoed up and down in pop-rock
bliss.
As fun as it was to shake and move to the thumping bass and
driving guitars, Ivarrson was the show and she knew it. She played
to the crowd as she ran the gamut of clichéd rock star emotions
ranging from giving the crowd genuine thank yous to shouting out
profanities while declaring how hard the band was going to rock. It
wasn’t a shtick really; rather it is just how The Sounds are on
stage and how Ivarrson expresses herself on stage. This is
after all a band that wrote a song about how much they love rock
‘n’ roll called, appropriately enough, “Rock N Roll” (it’s a lot
catchier than it sounds).
Opening the night were Foxy Shazam and Semiprecious Weapons,
two acts that also would fit well on the Warped stage. The former
are a gruff Cincinnati outfit that looks like what might happen if
Monotonix and Shim mated, while the later is a fiery glam-rock
foursome. The all-ages crowd packing the Showbox on a school night
(the show wasn’t sold out, but the venue was pretty full for a
weeknight) for the three-act bill served as a pleasant reminder of
how much fun rock ‘n’ roll can be when it is done right.
Tags: The Sounds
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October 29th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
For sure. Was a great show. Both SPW and Sounds were incredibly energetic. Crowd got what they wanted. Yes, they can say ‘Veni, vidi, vici Seattle.’