White Lies arrive at the Paradise on Saturday amidst a huge wave of hype. Harry the lead singer, channels the baritone of 80's pop star Julian Cope from Teardrop Explodes in a way that causes middle aged folks to flock to their concerts amongst the teenagers brought in by the Gossip Girl use of EST.
White Lies started life as Fear Of Flying, but when they wrote Fear of the Fairground they saw a new pathway and morphed into White Lies. With Harry lacking the ability to reproduce the keyboard sounds from the studio they brought in the rather excellent Tommy B from Mumm-Ra, a cult UK band from Bexhill on Sea.
Exploring a cache of songs about love and Death they rise above cliches, creating rhythms that sequester themselves in your head until you love them despite any qualms about loving the music the record companies want to throw down our throat.
If you were one of the 30 or so folks who were ahead of the curve and saw them at Great Scott in October you would have had a chance to talk to them and find them as charming as they are adorable.
Friendly Fires also play. FF were supposed to play in Boston in October supporting Lykke Li. Under the manipulations of their record label they blew off the gig to wow CMJ. BTW when asked about this they did apologize profusely!
The album is a classic danceable classic, Paris and Jump In the Pool are outstanding almost hiding the fact that the other songs would be the highlights of another lesser band.
The Soft Pack (previously known as the Muslims) in any other circumstance would be headlining, and seeing the lineup of the Paradise currently would be able to do so easily. a Bluesy guitar based rock sound many have lauded this band to the roof, personally when I saw them I could take or leave them but as US band ago they certainly are up in the upcoming new bands.
On Sunday , the most overblown UK star hits the most overblown Boston venue. Morrissey play The House Of Blues. why mention it? because an excellent band The Courteeners from Manchester UK, play support. A UK guitar based band in the vein of Oasis and Stone Roses, the raw vocal and catchy pop tunes have you humming their songs for long periods. We paid the exorbitant Morrissey fees just to see The Courteeners.
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Thought White Lies were fabulous. Great effort despite Harry's sore throat - bumped into him on the way out and gave him two thumbs up for such a performance despite how he was feeling. This lot could go all the way - there's a touch of greatness there which you do not see that often. Really look forward to seeing them again.
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