When I got a text from my brother Lawrence telling me that he was at the Ravonette’s show in Hoboken, I instantly wrote back saying “send me a review!” Because: 1. he’s a great writer. 2. he was there. 3. I figured he could use another girl to add to his stable of female bffs that are also in bands, and the Ravonettes have two!

Here’s his hilarious review under the cut:

Dear Drummer Girl Playing With The Raveonettes:

So, like, um… hey. How’s it going?

You don’t know me but I saw you play last night at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ as part of The Raveonette’s support tour for the new album, “Lust Lust Lust”. I was getting ready to sit down with a cup of tea and watch “John Adams” when my friend Stef called and said, “Hey, I have a plus one for The Raveonettes show and since you live in Jersey, I figured you’d be able to come over on short notice”. Naturally, I dropped what I was doing and drove down to Hoboken.

Now, I’m sure you didn’t have to worry about parking because you’re in the band and you probably had a van and someone conveniently drive you guys to the gig. I did not and trying to find parking in Hoboken is one of the most painful experiences ever. I drove around for a good twenty minutes, contemplating skipping the show and calling it a night, when I found parking four long, cold blocks away from the venue. I finally arrived about five minutes before you went on.

What do you think of Maxwell’s? It’s small, isn’t it? It’s totally like playing in someone’s basement except a lot of good bands play there without much fanfare. It has to be the most underrated place in the New York area even though it’s cramped and has the capacity of about 23 people. Still, you get to see some great bands. Like, I saw The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and British Sea Power there a while ago and it was a better show than I’ve seen anyone do at, say Bowery Ballroom. I even read on Wikipedia that one of New Order’s first US shows was there. But, yeah, getting there is hell, which is probably why the shows are always so much better.

So, anyway, I completely missed the opening act but I heard that was okay. Then you guys went on. Can I say that The Raveonettes are one of these bands that everyone knows is great but not enough people appreciate? Because that’s the case. Somewhere around 2002, music was exciting. It has since taken a turn for the worse, with crappy emo bands. You know who they are. They wear a lot of black eyeliner and sing about crying and how much they like a girl who doesn’t like them back (because they’re in a stupid emo band, that’s why) but it always comes out as a whine. I can’t stand them and I’m sure, neither can you. Not when you’re playing with The Raveonettes. Sune Rose Wagner has more rock n’ roll in the tip of his left pinky finger than all of these idiots combined.

What was great about the earlier part of this decade was that you had all these new bands that were popping up and getting noticed and they were trying new things by building off of older music. Some bands took an ‘80s style and updated it. Maybe because they are from Denmark so they had a different approach but The Raveonettes took ‘50s and ‘60s rock simplicity as filtered through punk.

Are you from Denmark, Little Drummer Girl? Actually, that The Raveonettes came from Denmark is important because, as everyone knows, Scandinavians are good at making cars and pop music. Okay, so maybe it’s the Swedes specifically but there’s some spillover, the way Canadians do a good job with some stuff after we Americans come up with the idea. Plus, unlike their suicidal Swedish neighbors, the Danes are considered to be the happiest people on earth. However, you wouldn’t believe that given the style of music The Raveonettes play. You know, the sorta stuff you expect to hear in a David Lynch movie or in the background of one of the bars in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours”.

In fact, I think I came up with this mathematical equation to explain it all:

The Raveonettes = ∑ Jesus and Mary Chain² × Helena Christiansen + Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound × Suicide²(the band, not the verb) ÷ √Hans Christian Andersen – Suicide (the verb, not the band)

Where was I? Oh, yeah. So, like, everyone always talks about how Sharin Foo is one of the hottest women in rock and roll – she’s definitely the hottest quarter-Chinese Dane I can name off the top of my head. Like, every magazine that ever talks about her is always going on about how astonished they are she’s in music because she’s too good looking. Sure, Amy Winehouse or Courtney Love are in music because they’re insane and music makes them appear more attractive when really, they’re about to slash your tires and/or your face. And the whole Christina/Britney thing was just ‘cause they were 19 years old because, otherwise, you’d pay no attention to them if you saw them wandering around a Jersey mall. Meanwhile, Sharin is simply beautiful AND plays some of the angriest guitars you’ve heard in a long time while appearing dispassionate all the way through. Kinda like a really gorgeous Hannibal Lecter cutting up the body of rock n’ roll without raising her heart rate.

Note how I’ve mentioned nothing about Sune Rose Wagner. This guy is great at songwriting and I’ll let the girls talk about him all they want. Speaking of talking, did you catch that guy in the crowd congratulating you guys on the press you’ve received? I don’t read music press so I have no idea if he was being sarcastic. The Raveonettes really should have more attention than they do. Every third-rate blogger and music magazine is trying to find “the next big thing” in music and forgetting acts that are doing it right. The reason is simple: they’ve seen other journalists or bloggers get famous for finding bands before everyone else does and they figure they can get famous as well if they just find their own Killers or My Chemical Romance. But, they won’t because new bands these days just suck.

Meanwhile, The Raveonettes put out consistently good music and their live shows are actually… fun. Well, on stage at least. Their fans need to get into it instead of stand around confused. The Raveonettes play music to mosh to and music to slow dance to. But, it’s consistently good and I think that throws people off since, when listening to a lot of other bands, they’re used to hearing one or two good songs in a bad set list.

Anyways, yeah, last night, I was watching the show and getting into it. You were in the back of the stage and it was poorly lit. Then, like three or four songs into it, I began paying a lot of attention to you, Little Drummer Girl. Sure, you were playing along to a sequencer, but… WOW! You were just pounding away, looking so cute the more into it you got. Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark once sang, “Heaven is a girl with short black hair”. They should’ve added, “wearing leather pants and playing drums with The Raveonettes”. Seriously, what planet are you from? Every photo I took of you gave you these kind of demonic eyes from the flash that makes me think you’re not human at all but some sort of supernatural creature brought to this earth to drive beats and make people happy. There were even women in the audience who were totally taken with you and no one could focus on the music with you up there.

Thank you, Pretty Drummer Girl from the Raveonettes, for making all my parking nightmares worthwhile. And thank Sharin and Sune for their music and for putting you on stage with them.

Also, I wait to see you on “The Late Show With David Letterman”, Tuesday, March 25th!

Love,
Lawrence

Here’s The Pretty Drummer Girl:

The Gorgeous Sharin Foo (and drummer):

And Sune Wagner:

Tags: drummer, hoboken, lawrence lewitinn, Maxwells, ravonettes, sharin foo, sune wagner

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 10:04 am and is filed under Live Shows, Maxwells. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.