THE DIG

Somebody sign these guys immediately.  If they play a nearby venue: buy a ticket. The Dig is David Baldwin (guitar, vocals), Emile Mosseri (bass, vocals), Erick Eiser (keyboards, guitar) and Jamie Alegre (drums), and they didn’t disappoint in the evening’s opening slot. They offered the Trocadero audience surprisingly resolving builds of sound and texture. They plead, chastise, stalk and throb out power pop with powerful hooks and reverberating modulations. They’re honest and exhibited a raw power and presence.

Cohesive and solid, the Dig is a band that’s poised to explode.

THE ANTLERS

The Antlers (Peter Silberman, Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci) took the stage next and delivered a powerhouse albeit short set chocked full of emotion and showmanship.

The set came from the band’s critically acclaimed new album Hospice. Their sound was passionate, cerebral and confessional. Especially noteworthy was the heightened percussion in “Sylvia,” which honed an edge on Silberman’s already wrenching vocals. The Antlers, like confessional poets Plath and Sexton, are grappling with raw, honest themes; the shadowy side of human existence – “Please, please calm down/ Steady out, I’m terrified/ Sorry, I want us to ally/ But you swing on little knives/They’re only sharp on one side”.

They opened with “Kettering,” ‘confessed’ with “Sylvia” then launched directly into “Bear,” “Two,” and pounded out “Wake.” Antlers fans found themselves wanting to hear “Epilogue” but on the whole, the deep and genuine vulnerability matched with distortion only left the Troc audience hungry for more.

EDITORS

When first introduced to a band, it’s typical  to attempt to pigeonhole their sound and pinpoint their influences. Editors are three albums deep into the American scene, yet newcomers and aficionados alike continue to liken their sound to bands that came before them.

But Editors are far from derivative; not overplayed, and not overwritten. The audience at the Trocadero igot more than a taste of the their lean arrangements, including a driving and symmetrical “In This Light And On This Evening” straight into a tight and economical version of “Lights’.

Most striking is the migration of style toward a definitive signature sound. They gave us “Bullets,” which in key and tempo pound joyfully through a refrain of “you don’t need this disease;” the contrast is rousing and ironic. The result is and was powerful on what was their debut single from 2005. In the same set was “Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool” from their most recent release In This Light and On this Evening. This album has an edge they’ve grown into but it’s not just the move toward synthesizers and electronics. It’s a stylistic turn that hits the ground running on fully visceral octane: “I give a little to you, I give a little to him, I give a little to her/ I don’t wanna be left out, or get fucked,/but there’s a talent in your lies.”

With three albums behind them and influence abundant, their evolution has yielded an overall sound whose arrangements, and instrumentation, like the band itself,  get bigger and more anthemic.